Prepping for Hospital Stay #1- Expander surgery

I'm still working on Fall, Disney and Christmas posts, but I thought I would interrupt with the surgery info...

The Basic Info
On Friday, Vivi Cate will go in for her first surgery with the cranio-facial plastic surgeon.  This surgery will actually prep us for the 'big' one that will happen sometime in April.  Vivi's surgeon will be inserting expanders (think deflated balloons) underneath her skin in two places- the right side of head/forehead and  the right side of neck/shoulder area.  We will stay in the hospital for (hopefully) a few days.

After a couple of weeks of healing time, they will slowly begin filling the expanders (think blowing up a balloon).  We will go in once a week for approx 12 weeks where they will sedate her and fill her expanders.  The filling procedures are out-patient, and we should be in and out within an hour.  We really have no choice but to sedate her during these fills because Vivi can be a hot mess (massive understatement) when it comes to doctors, nurses, anyone wearing scrubs, etc.  The surgeon and I both agree there is no other option but sedation.

After a few months of fillings, Vivi Cate will look like she has small balloons underneath her skin.  Sounds crazy, huh? The purpose of the expanders is to stretch and create lots of new skin. Once her surgeon thinks she has enough skin, we will go in for the 'big' surgery where they will begin removing her nevus and re-placing it with her newly stretched skin.  After the 'big' surgery, there will be 5-6 small surgeries for touch-ups.  We should be done with the entire surgery process by the end of summer, but she can have scar touch-ups as she gets older.

Why surgery?

*big sigh*   I want to say upfront that I love Vivi's face. LOVE it.  She's beautiful, exotic, and perfect.  This has been a very hard decision for us, and I've wrestled with it since the day they placed her in my arms.  I've almost backed out of the removal idea several times because of fear.

 I fear she will resent me for removing the nevus and replacing it with scars.

 I fear the surgery won't be a success, and I will ruin that beautiful face.

 I fear people will assume we are 'fixing' her.  which we are not.  You can't fix perfection.

Here is the main the reason why we are choosing surgery- A nevus carries a small risk of melanoma and removing it will protect her from that risk.  She is at the perfect age for the removal and recovery.  If I waited for her to make this decision as a teenager and adult, the surgery process would be more painful and scarring would be much worse. Ultimately, removal in Vivi's case is the right choice.  It's just HARD.

For now, please pray for my Vivi Cate.

 Pray the pain and recovery is minimal.  Pray that a miraculous amount of skin is created during this expander process.  Her nevus is so large, her plastic surgeon believes there is no way we can get through the 'big' surgery without a small skin graft.   A skin graft will scar way more than the expanded skin, so I'm praying he will not need to graft.  Pray for our family.  The kids and I will be traveling back and forth to OKC at least once a week for several months. During this time, we will still be juggling homeschooling, ballet, karate, soccer, Classical Conversations, etc, so it might get a little crazy around here!