T&G

Before Eva was born, they saw a cyst on her ovary during an ultrasound. Because we didn’t want to know the gender, they were careful not to explain anything in too much detail (and not say “ovary”!) but told us that it’s probably nothing to worry about and the OB/GYN kept reassuring us. Hard not to worry, though, especially when you have to not do any research about it for fear of discovering the gender.

If she were a boy, a cyst would almost certainly mean cancer, but for girls they are not uncommon (which sounds like it’s common, but is really a doctor’s way of saying “it’s rare, but not so rare that we don’t know what to do”), since the job of an ovary is to create cysts every month to release an egg. They usually go away by themselves once the mother’s hormones are not coursing through the baby. Even the surgery, if necessary, is a simple operation they said. Even simple operations are scary to a parent and hard to think about doing to an infant.

We brought her to Seattle Children’s Hospital for a couple ultrasounds since she was born and we met with their resident expert on this, but it wasn’t shrinking. So they said to wait a little longer but will probably need surgery in a few months. And she had definitely lost one ovary, unfortunately.

But today, she had another ultrasound and it is now shrinking and will not need surgery after all! Good job, Eva!