Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Lumpy

When our third son, S3 was about 11, we discovered a lump under his arm. After the doctor looked at it, he declared it was an osteochondroma, or bone tumor. This worried us for a bit until they told us it was just a tiny cell that was part of growth plate that got lost back when he was a fetus. And now it was trying to grow another arm out sideways. Shortly after that we discovered a strange lump in his eye. The doctor told us this was an epi-orbital dermoid, a little cell that thinks it is skin, so it grows hair, sweat glands and sometimes teeth. It too was a cell that got lost when he was a fetus. His only had a tiny row of eyelashes. We discovered it one day he asked me to look and see if I could spot an eyelash in his eye. It was a white round thing about the size of the top of your pinkie finger.
More recently, while he was on his mission, he had a knee injury, and they took an x-ray, and realized he had one more bone growth on his leg, between the two bones. The doctor told him he had a lump, and S3 said, "don't tell me, let me guess, is it an osteochondroma?" The doctor was very surprised and said "yes!" Again it was a tiny bone cell from the growth plate that had gotten lost and was trying to grow another leg bone. We had the first osteochondroma removed, and the epiorbital dermoid was removed shortly after that. But the leg one, the Dr. said didn't need removal unless it began to interfere with his tibia and fibula.
We were discussing the lumps this morning, and how they had gotten lost on their way to form him, when S3 suddenly laughed and commented it somehow seems typical. He said, "I started out distracted even before I was formed. My cells got distracted, and pretty soon, whichever cell was in charge said, 'Hey, find a seat, you can't just be floating around. Hurry! Sit Down!' So the cells grabbed any seat, and that is where they landed."
As a side note, one day the radio station was announcing for anyone to call in and tell us of the weird things they found in their bodies. I got on the phone. The other contestants mentioned a fly larvae under the skin in their knee, and a cockroach in this guys ear. S3 won, the disc jockies decided, because after all, the prize was to Disneyland, and he was a little boy.
So just after S2 came home from his mission, and D1 finished her chemo and radiation, we all got into the van and drove to California to go to Disneyland. Free tickets for 8 for one day, and my older sister and her family joined us since she lived in California. With our son barely home from his mission, our daughter a survivor of cancer, and the third son a survivor of lumps that weren't cancer, we had a wonderful celebration of life, that day in Disneyland, and every day since.

7 comments:

Sailor said...

Hi Annie,
I remember the lumps but couldn't have told you what they were, so it is good you got it down on cyberether. And a cute explanation from S3 as well.

Kay Dennison said...

Now that is weird. Good thing they can treat it. Maybe that's what happened to my brain! lol A trip to Disneyland! What a nice thing to happen! Couldn't happen to a nicer lady's family!

Annieofbluegables said...

Yes, Sailor, that is what prompted the blog.
Since I have started blogging, my ears are pricked up to anything that would be a good to write.
Kay, You are so sweet, thank you. I hope life is treating you well.
a

Andrew Hahn said...

And then there is the good old fatty tumors. I've got so many of them I'm sure that someday I'll get cancer and have no idea.

I have had 3 removed. One the size of a golf ball!

Annieofbluegables said...

Andrew:
You and Dad and his mom. Nobody else got those, I don't think
a

RisibleGirl said...

Being a guy, S3 probably brags about this stuff. My husband has webbed toes on both feet (not all of his toes, though...)and thinks it's really cool. He loves showing it off.

Me? NO WAY. My feet would never see the light of day.

Annieofbluegables said...

hahahaha RG.

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