Hernia Surgery?

Christian had another appointment with a specialist today at Children's Hospital. About a year ago at his four year well-child checkup, our pediatrician noticed there was an indentation right below his belly button. After feeling around, she found that he had a small umbilical cord hernia. At that time, she didn't say much about it except, "He may have to have surgery some day to fix it."


Fast forward to about a month ago at his five year checkup. She noticed it again and said, "If there is ever a year when you are going to hit your deductible, you might consider getting it fixed." I told her that we are going to hit our deductible this year with baby coming in November. She then recommended a consultation with a general surgeon at Children's Hospital to see what they would say.


Yesterday, we had our consultation with a general surgeon and of course by the end of the appointment, he recommended surgery. He said that everybody is born with an umbilical cord hernia, it forms from where the umbilical cord is attached inside the womb, but once a child is born, the hole should close. He said the hole is in the muscle layer, which is right under the top layer of skin. He said that 99% of them close before kids are 4-5, but a rare minority do not. Christian, of course, is in that rare minority! The surgeon said that if it has not closed by now, it probably will not close and may cause trouble later. He went onto explain some of the risks of letting it be until he was an adult. 1. As Christian grows, so will the hole. 2. With a bigger hole, there is a bigger risk of getting his intestines or anything else caught in the hole and causing further damage. He informed us that if we got it fixed now, there is only a 5% chance that it will open up again, where as if Christian was an adult, the chance for recurrence is 15-20%. He also mentioned that Christian will only be down for 2-3 days, and then he laughed, "Probably not as long as you would like!" I had to laugh too! Apparently he has worked with plenty of boys!!

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He then went onto explain how he would do the procedure. He would make an incision in the shape of a happy face right underneath his belly button, flip the belly button open, repair the hernia, and then sew everything back together. The procedure would take about an hour. There would be no stitches to take out in the end, I kind of missed how he was going to close the incision. Some little boy was very active there yesterday and I was trying to get him to behave AND listen to the doctor!


After I got home and talked to Matt about it, he was ok with everything except the scar. Our pediatrician mentioned that they just go through the belly button to fix them, so there is not a scar. I may do some more research and see if that is the case or if there is another doctor in town who would do that. We are not big fans of having a scar on his little belly at age 5! Christian would go under general anesthesia during the procedure too.


I also asked when we could get it done as we would need to do it before the end of the year. The receptionist said there are openings as early as the beginning of September, we have a little time to make a decision, but not a lot. Actually, I would want to get it done before the middle of October. I don't want to deal with surgery and possible baby coming soon!