My daughter, the medical anomaly!

Last June a stranger looked at my child and said to me, "What is wrong with her knee?"

I was surprised because as far as I knew nothing was wrong with her knee. But as I looked I could see there was something odd. Her knee looked fine from the front but behind her knee was a swelling. A largish protrudence. We immediately saught medical advice and it was diagnosed via ultrasound and xray as a Baker's Cyst.

We saw a rheumatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who tried to treat it the conventional way- we had 2 cortizone injections which should have shrunk the lump. They didnt.

The upshot is the lump is now bigger than ever!

Imagine your knee. Imagine a grapefruit under the skin behind your knee.
Brenna is a tiny girl. 29 pounds. so in all actuality its a ping pong ball sized lump.

its huge
unsightly
offensive
foreign.

We saw an orthopedist yesterday and he said its the Largest He Has Ever Seen. He is reluctant to do surgery but will consider it if we request it. his concern with surgery is that it will re-occur. I asked if he couldn't just drain it. He said it would fill back up. It should go away. Some day.

We can't do it. We can not put her through surgery for something that isnt hurting her. If it gets any bigger it may start to pester her and bother her. Recently she has begun to comment on it. But we are not convinced it is painful. She is so full of life.

But I want it off of her. I want it off her in the same way that 3 years ago I wanted her out of me. Desperately.

Incidentally, this same child has no finger tips on her left hand. Bone that should have formed never did. her 4 fingers are all very short and I call them her little fingers. the dr asked about her short fingers yesterday. She showed him her right hand pinky finger. I thought that was adorable.