Baker's cyst

Tuesday, July 2

Back in May I noticed a big something under the skin behind Kay's left leg when I was drying her off after her bath.  I called her pediatrician the next day and we took her in to have the doctor look at it.  When the doctor saw it she said that it was most likely something called a Baker's (or popliteal) cyst and it was something not to worry about.  To be on the safe side though she gave us a referral to a specialist to have them take a look at it just to be sure.  So I called the specialist and wasn't able to get an appointment for over a month.  The day that they could get us in happened to be the same day that I had an appointment with my surgeon already but the times were such that we could make it to both in plenty of time.  

So on the day of the appointment, I took M&M and Kay with me to my appointment so that M&M could watch Kay while I was meeting with my doctor.  After that we went over to Primary Children's where Kay's appointment was.  When we got to the office, the waiting room was completely packed and there was a sign behind the checkin desk that had a list of how far behind the different doctors were!  We ended up waiting for over an hour past our appointment time before we were finally called back to an examination room.  First we had the nurse talk with us and then an intern came in and took a look at Kay's leg.  He had a flashlight with him and turned off the lights in the room and then put the flashlight up to the bump under her skin.  You could see the light shine right through it which he explained shows that it is in fact a Bakers cyst - a sac under the skin that is filled with joint fluid from the knee.  If the light didn't shine through the bump then it would mean that it is a solid mass instead of fluid.  After that the main doctor came in a basically did the same thing and said that this is something that 99 times out of 100 doesn't bother the child and will just go away on its own.  It can apparently happen when children are growing and some of the joint fluid leaks from the knee because of the quick growth.  Anyway, Kay is pretty proud to show her "bump" to people.  She did really good at the doctor's office and was a cute patient.

This was the best picture I could get of the cyst.  It is there behind the knee of her left leg - and you can only see it when she stands with her knees locked.