Removal Surgery

Sisters!

Today was another big day in Emily's nevus journey. Her first removal surgery has come 11 days early. The schedule today was a little different than when the expanders were put in. The surgery was scheduled for 1:30pm which was stressful since we couldn't feed Emily in the morning. She ended up eating at 8:00pm the night before and was not a happy camper in the morning not getting a bottle. Luckily we had to take Ryleigh to school in the morning and the car ride helped calm Emily down for a little bit. Overall she did very well for the circumstances.

We arrived at the hospital around noon and were met with a familiarity of having gone through this before. It was comforting to be able focus just on Emily and not worry about things like when do we talk to Dr. Bauer, how long post surgery we have to wait until they allow us to see her, and where we have to go for each step of the process.

No food for 18 hours and still somehow smiling

The surgery took about an hour and 45 minutes which was a little shorter than last time. When Dr. Bauer came out to let us know how it went,  he was very pleased with the results and was confident that we wouldn't need to do another round of expansion. That was great news! Given the problems we had and the last minute schedule change RG and I were not confident that the results would be as good as Dr. Bauer indicated.

Heading back to see Emily after the surgery similar to the first surgery. We could hear her screaming from down the hall. Although it was much more intense last time. We were also more prepared today in that we came armed with a bottle. After not eating for close to 20 hours she made short work of that bottle.  Thankfully that calmed her down quickly and she was able to rest peacefully for about an hour or so before we had to move to the hospital room.



Resting peacefully in the surgery recovery room

The rest of the time was spent in the hospital room letting Emily rest and feeding her.  Thankfully she doesn't seem to be in near as much pain as when the expanders were put in.  She continues to possess remarkable strength and calm throughout this journey.




Ready to go home!