Surgery - BIG Success

Surgery went well on Monday, though much longer than we had anticipated. The operating room was running behind schedule so we had to wait an extra hour. Finally at 10:45am she was wheeled back for surgery. Dr. B said it would take at least 3 hours. Four hours later, a hospital volunteer checked in on them and was told they expected it to be another 30 minutes. That 30 minutes turned into over an hour. Finally, at about 4pm, over 5 hours later, the doctor came to visit with us and explain how things went.

Due to the 3 expanders, which is something newer he tried, it took much longer than he originally anticipated. All the skin had to be laid into place before it could all be stitched. He is extremely pleased with how it all went. They were able to get about 95% of the Nevus removed. All that is left is the small portion just under her left eye, the very tip of her nose (which is a very light spot) and bit in her left eye brow. Amazing.

She is quite swollen, including her eyes which are swollen shut and will be for another 2 days or so. She is dealing with it quite well, overall. She threw one little fit on Monday evening, saying eyes, eyes and I did my best to tell her right now she needed to keep the closed but she would be able to open them again. Entertainer her isn't easy, nothing keeps her attention for long - I pray the swelling subsides soon. She is a trooper though.

So where do we go from here? Well due to the way they had to bring the forehead skin down and twist it (had to keep it connected in the corner of her eye and nose for blood flow) down for the nose, she has an extra skin fold or two over her right eye. Therefore, we will have to go back to Chicago in 3-4 weeks for an out patient surgery where they will remove the extra fold and put her eyebrow back in its proper place. This time will allow the skin placed on her nose to grow it's own blood supply. I was told this procedure would take about 90 minutes or so. We will hopefully know that date later this week.

After that, she will be allowed to heal till around the first of the year. They will then take a graft of skin from behind one of her ears and graft it to the area under her left eye. Not sure what else is planed, was a lot to comprehend in one day.

There were a few things that I didn't quite expect but there were a lot of unknowns going into it. I hadn't anticipated all of the eye swelling, though it makes sense. I was also not expecting that we would have to return in a few weeks for another procedure. So I know we will have more swelling then but at least it will only be one eye.

Well here are pictures of how she looks, it's quite amazing when you look at the before pictures.

Angel & mom after recovery

Angel all propped up with pillows, resting.

This was her cue that she wanted another bite of applesauce.

After we got home yesterday evening.