One of the hardest things about being a parent is watching your child go through something you have no control over. Over the past few months, my heart has been so heavy and full of worry I found myself at a breaking point. The point where eventually I had to stop and just through my hands up and say “how much more can I take?”
Flashback to 2007. When our oldest son David was around 3 months old, I noticed something that didn’t quite look right with his left ear. It was red, and swollen at the tip and hot to the touch. Had he been stung? An allergic reaction? What could it have been? And so began a very lengthy process of going from doctor to doctor, to specialist to specialist, with no result and a lot of people left scratching their heads. As you can guess, I was frustrated. To make things worse, over the following months, the size of David’s ear had doubled. The swelling had spread now to not just the top of his ear, but the entire left ear – top to bottom. A rash had formed behind the ear, and it was still producing a tremendous amount of heat. It didn’t seem to bother him, and no one could provide any answers, so we eventually just let it go.
Around the age of 4, his ear still very much swollen, began to bleed from time to time when he scratched it. He had a new pediatrician at the time – one who we didn’t plague with all of our questions – and so we began to ask again “any ideas what this could be? We’ve been told califlower ear, a bug bite, etc”.
“I’m not sure what it could be, however, I’ll give you a referral for someone who could tell you what it might be.” Sure, I’ll bite. What could it hurt? Someones gotta have an answer, right?
A few months later we were sent to the ENT department at Neumors children’s hospital in Jacksonville. Here David would be diagnosed with what is called “venal malformation”; or simply put, misformed blood vessels. Finally! Moving forward! An MRI was ordered to begin seeing how severe the malformation was; however, our insurance had its own plans and decided it needed to take us for a few more loops along the way before we could begin. (Oh the joys of dealing with insurance companies right?)
David talking with one of the child specialists about his procedure.
So here we are, present day. David is now 6 years old. Last month, he finally got in for his MRI. The radiologist found a blood vessel in his ear that didn’t form properly and is the cause of the swelling, redness, and heat. Over the next few weeks, we will see a specialist in Orlando who will help get us started with the process of correcting the veins in his ear. 
However, upon review of his MRI the radiologist also noticed a few blood vessels on David’s brain that looked, as they put, a bit “different.” It is not uncommon for kids that are diagnosed with venal malformation to have it in more than one location of the body.
So you might be thinking – what’s the risk? He’s gone this long and it hasn’t caused him any pain, etc? We thought so too. With VM, at any given time, the area affected can, swell abnormally, and even rupture the blood vessels in the area. While the ear may be severe, the brain causes much more cause for concern.
So as I sit here in the waiting room; surrounded by babies, and worried mommies, while my tough little guy is sleeping in a big tube in the other room… I have to remind myself, (constantly) that it will be okay. No matter what. Why? Because we’ve got a big God who knows us, loves us, and cares for us. My ultimate hope is that David would be healed miraculously… Why? Because God can totally do that! But if it’s not his plans (our plans are rarely ever His plans at first) then my hope is that David would be able to someday use this experience as a testimony for someone else. Maybe even a kid his age.
David has a huge heart, not just for his friends and family, but for Jesus as well. I can only begin to imagine what this kid could do with an incredible testimony behind him as well.
Would you join me in praying for our little guy? To all my mommy friends who are struggling with a personal issue with your little ones, hang in there. I know it hurts, and I know how badly we just want to squeeze our little ones and tell the world “no more!”, but I promise you – Our God is bigger than any mess we go through, I’ve learned that first hand. I know He is going to do great things.
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