.JPG)
It’s been a few weeks longer than I would have liked to get everyone an update on how Emily is doing. The short story is that she’s been amazing and completely unfazed by the whole expansion process. But it hasn’t been without complication. A pretty sizable hole has opened up in one of the incisions and this has prevented us from expanding on that side. Without the ability to use both expanders we are pretty much guaranteed to have to go through another round of expansion. I always knew that this was a possibility so I never let myself think that we would be able to get through it in one round. Still, knowing that we have to do this all over again is a pretty hard pill to swallow.
All said, we still have a lot to be thankful for. First and foremost is Emily and her great personality. She’s amazingly calm and just rolls with the punches. That makes it so much easier on us as parents. The second is Emily’s plastic surgeon Dr. Bauer. There’s no one else in the world with more experience with nevus removal, so we know with complete confidence that she is getting the best care possible. The third is the other nevus families we have met. They’ve provided wonderful support and perspective; especially now with the setback we’ve run into. And last but not least we are thankful for all the support from our friends and family. We are blessed with a great support system.
All said, we still have a lot to be thankful for. First and foremost is Emily and her great personality. She’s amazingly calm and just rolls with the punches. That makes it so much easier on us as parents. The second is Emily’s plastic surgeon Dr. Bauer. There’s no one else in the world with more experience with nevus removal, so we know with complete confidence that she is getting the best care possible. The third is the other nevus families we have met. They’ve provided wonderful support and perspective; especially now with the setback we’ve run into. And last but not least we are thankful for all the support from our friends and family. We are blessed with a great support system.
The expansion process itself has been pretty easy. We’ve gone through five expansions total; one with Dr. Bauer's nurses and four at home, on our own. We start with lidocaine over the expander port at least an hour before we plan to do the expansion; that numbs the skin so Emily doesn’t feel the needle. An hour later we are ready to do the actual expansion. First, we fill a 60 ml and 30 ml syringe with saline. Then, clean off any excess lidocaine and clean & sterilize the port site before inserting the needle. The lidocaine is wonderful stuff because she has yet to show any sign that she feels the needle. My job during this whole process is to hold Emily still and keep her occupied while RG does the actual expansion. After inserting the needle we fill the expander so that when you press and release the skin over the expander it returns to its normal color in under 3 seconds. The most that we’ve been able to fill in a week is 65 ml, but we average 60 ml. We are currently at 360 ml in the right expander. The goal was 700ml, but there is a good chance that we won’t get there. Because of the hole, and the fact that it continues to grow, we will most likely not make it our scheduled January 18th removal date. We should hear from Dr. Bauer in the next couple of days as to how we will proceed from here.
Below are some pictures of how things are progressing.
 |
| Tools of the trade |
 |
| 200 ml |
 |
| 360 ml Halfway to the goal. |
 |
| Left expander hole. We haven't expanded this since a week after surgery. |
