Our brave little boy!

When Keller was about 18 months old he developed a lump under his chin. The pediatrician said it was a hematoma (a bruise) which would go away in time. Instead of going away, it broke up into two smaller lumps, which became inflamed and one day burst open. The next time the doctor saw Keller, he immediately put him on a strong antibiotic and made an appointment with a dermatologyst. The antibiotics didn't have any effect (except for making him weak and giving him severe diareah).
The dermatologyst was baffled by the large red bumps on Keller's face. She poked them open, extracted a sample of the fluid inside and shot some steroids into the wound. She also wanted to put him on an antibiotic, but I asked her if there was any way that we could forego more medication, since it had only had an adverse effect before. She agreed if I would promise to change the dressings and keep out any infection. We went to see the dermatologyst a few more times. Once she asked Keller to be the subject of a "Jounrnal night" where other dermatologysts gathered to examine rare skin cases. The others were equally baffled by his condition.

We later took Keller to see a family doctor who said that whatever Keller's problem was, it needed to be taken care of urgently so as not to become worse. Our dermatologyst had connections with a physician at Primary Children's Hospital, and she agreed to make arraingements for us to visit with a pediatric plastic surgeon see if we could remove the bumps surgically.
Upon visiting with the plastic surgeon, he said he could not remove the lumps unless he knew what they were. He then ordered an MRI. Keller got the MRI at our hospital here in Rexburg and the results were sent to Priomary Chilren's Hospital. The plastic surgeon's office informed us that the lumps were enlarged lymph nodes and that they would need to be biopsied before they could be removed and before the scar revision could be done. He said that he would need to be seen by an Ear Nose and Throat specialist.
I got the information for the Ear Nose and Throat specialist and began calling to make an appointment. They had an outdated answering machine (telling me they were out of the office for the Thanksgiving Holdiay in December), which then hung up. I tried calling various other numbers only to be transferred to other extensions and left a message (which they said would be returned within 24 hours) and didn't hear back from them for several days. When I finally reached a human voice I was thrilled, only they refused to make an appointment for me with out a referral. I told them the name of the doctor who had referred me, but they needed written proof. I then called back the surgeon's office who promised to send the referral. The referral did not get sent that day. This went on for weeks. We finally scheduled a double surgery; removal of the lymph nodes and scar revision. Only when we got down there the ENT had not been given a copy of the MRI results and didn't want to perform the surgery since the lymph nodes were dangerously close to some major facial nerves. Long story somewhat shorter, the ENT decided to put him under and do a fine needle aspirator test on him to do a biopsy. Several weeks later he determinded that the surgery had to be done anyway. With a lot of fasting and prayer, we took him in knowing that his face could be paralyzed by removing the lymph nodes. Fortunatley with special process called "nerve mapping" the ENT was able to disect his nerve for the procedure with out severing it. For now his smile is crooked due to the trauma on his nerve, but we are hopeful that his nerves will fully recover and that his wounds will also heal properly. this ordeal has been an adventure (almost 2 years long)! To date Keller has been seen by a pediatrician, our family practitioner, 3 dermatologists, a plastic surgeon, an Ear Nose and Throat specialist, and a Neurologist. He has been put under for an MRI and a fine needle aspirator test as well as a 3-hour opperationin his short life time (he turned 3 in February). We love you Keller!!!!!