Thyroglossal Pain in the Neck

Hannah has a thyroglossal cyst in her neck. We first discovered it right around Melody's birth when it got infected and grew to an enormous size. With antibiotics, it mostly went away, though it could still be seen. We were told we could just watch it and unless it continued to get infected or we wanted it removed for cosmetic reasons we wouldn't need to do anything.

The past couple weeks I have noticed Hannah's cyst slowly turning brown, getting a little larger and almost looking bruised. Now it is red and looks inflamed. Today we saw the doctor and she will begin another round of antibiotics. We'll see the ENT again as soon as we can get a referral through. Thankfully, it is really not causing her much pain. She has complained of it itching a bit and hurting some when she swallows.

Pray that the antibiotics will clear the cyst up. Hannah is very worried about surgery, though it would be a relatively easy proceedure. She tends to internalize things and so we worry about her anyway and this is one more thing to stress her out. We hope to see the ENT very soon. If surgery is warranted, we hope to schedule it at the end of April or early May as my parents will be here and we'd have help.

A part of me hopes she doesn't need surgery now. I don't need one more thing to deal with. However, since August it has never completely gone away. Though she says it doesn't bother her, I suspect she'll want it removed someday for cosmetic reasons. If it were to be removed now, we wouldn't have to deal with possible repeat infections and a cosmetic surgery down the road.

Pray for wisdom in how to proceed and for a special dose of peace for Hannah.