Prayers for Leyna

"Dear Jesus, heal my neck!" Leyna recites everyday while touching her throat. She may not understand what exactly she's asking for and why we are walking her through that prayer, but we know that there are two issues we've found necessary to pray to God about.

Firstly, this Thursday morning Leyna is scheduled to undergo a surgery. Ever since Leyna shed her babyfat we've notice a peculiar lump under her chin, and recently we had it checked. Turns out it's a congenital defect (meaning she's had it since birth) called a thyroglossal duct cyst. To save you the trouble of googling what it is, here's a brief explanation. During early development, cells that make up thyroid gland originate up near the base of the tongue and make a journey down the midline of the neck to its final destination on the lower neck. That tube-like path it traveled is supposed to close up and disappear, but in cases where it doesn't do so completely, an open space remains resulting in the cyst. The cyst isn't painful or bothersome to her, but to prevent the possibility of infection later in life, it's best to remove it. The surgery will involve an incision across her throat and removing not just the cyst, but all it's "branches" associated with it's path -- which is a hyoid bone and some tissue at the base of the tongue. The procedure should only take about an hour or so, and we'll be over-nighting in the hospital with her. So please pray for the two surgeons and medical staff involved; for Leyna's comfort, cooperation and quick recovery; and mommy n daddy's energy in the week to follow!

Secondly, in the process of taking ultrasounds in preparation for this surgery, they've also discovered a nodule on her thyroid. This is a completely separate issue and different location from the cyst. Thryoid nodules are commonly found in adults, but it's abnormal to be found in young children and pose a greater concern since the chances of malignancy are much higher. At the moment the ENT specialist says the nodule is 2mm and too small to biopsy. We still have yet to hear a report of her latest ultrasound, which we expect them to address after her surgery. We are thankful the cyst issue is what led to the discovery of the nodule, so we continue to wait and pray for whatever lies ahead.

We'll try to keep you updated on Leyna's progress. As of now, she remains our super energetic firecracker as usual!