One Month Follow Up and Plans for Next Time

Little Miss Keziah here had another appointment today, just a follow up from her surgery that happened a month ago.

It's amazing how quickly you forget things when you aren't dealing with it weekly for expander fills, like traffic and long waiting room times. But with a computer and especially Opa there with us, that sure helped to pass the time away today! (even Patches, in his doctor's outfit made by Aunt Jenn, took in some computer time ;o)

After a long wait, Dr. Zuker came in and had a look at Keziah and the work that was done a month ago. Needless to say, he is very pleased with how well she is healing up, and so are we.

The scars will continue to lighten in colour as time passes by. We massage them everyday for a few minutes which is very good for scars. It doesn't necessarily matter what type of lotion/oil to use, it is the actual massaging that really helps a scar to even out in texture and colour. We will do this everyday for at  least 6-8 months.

So, for next time, Dr. Zuker is planning a surgery for April of 2015. In this surgery, he will be using skin from the back of her ear to place along her eyebrow, where it is not as dark but still dark. He will also make the eyebrow really skinny and shorten it. He will get rid of what is left under her eye, and he will also fix the gap on her scalp, which is quite large and has no hair.

And then, well, that could be it, depending on how things settle and heal. So she will still have a skinny sliver of the nevus as an eyebrow, which means she will continue to need sunscreen and a hat. Once she is older, she can decide what she wants to do with the sliver of nevus. By then, medical technology will have advanced like it usually does, and we can see what is available. For now, we plan to keep the eyebrow with the nevus, just a really skinny and shaped one.

And what does Keziah think of all this? Well, she has needed lots of reassurance that Dr. Zuker will *not* take all her freckle away. She wants to keep some of it. And that is no problem with us. There is also some freckle left behind her ear. So she still has a part of her freckle with her :o)

So with surgery not happening till April, that means this blog will be quiet again. Good thing I have my other blog to scratch my writing itch. :o)

Thank you once again for following her on this journey of removal, as well as for all your thoughts and prayers that were on her behalf. Most of all, we are so thankful to God for giving to us and her what we've been in need of on this journey: wisdom, encouragement, strength, healing, stamina, health and well, all of you near and far. So many people have helped,from sending us a message of well wishes to taking Keziah under your wing (Miss Valentina :o) to being willing to take Lincoln to making the drive to Toronto when Nathan couldn't make it. You are all greatly appreciated and pray that you also see God's work in your life, and look to Him in good times and difficult moments.

If you have any questions at all, do not hesitate to contact me here in the comments or email me (find the address under "Contact Me"). I will do my best to help give an answer to your question(s).

Keziah wishes you a wonderful and safe winter - or summer - wherever you live! And we will catch up in a few months again. Take care!!

One Week After...

Well, it's been 9 days since Keziah's surgery to remove a little part of her nevus around the bottom of her eye and up the side of her face. Just yesterday the steri-strips came off and we were able to finally see what Dr. Zuker did. It will still take the incisions and then scars a number of months to heal up, lighten in colour and blend in. But so far we are pleased with last week's results.

So, a week ago, this is how things looked. It was hard to see much of a difference due to the dried blood looking like her nevus:

About 5 days later, her eye was a bit swollen still, but she was feeling great!

It was also then that I saw some bruising. You can hardly tell in the picture, but all down in front of her ear around the tape, it was quite yellow for a day or so. She always bruises yellow - never any other colour.

But despite the bruising - she was still smiley!

And then finally, yesterday we took all the steri-strips off and tada!

I know, you are probably thinking - um, is there even a change?! A difference?!?! All that for what?! Well, let's pull up a picture to compare, and then maybe you will see it. Or not. Some have told me it's hard to tell because they never see her birth mark to begin with, so they really can't tell the changes, which is pretty cool. But here is a before:
*edit: you know what?! We just noticed something, comparing the next two pictures: Dr. Zuker also dealt with the very wide pink scar between her ear and hairline, pulling her hairline down towards her ear. Whaddya' know.....we didn't even notice till now! So you probably can't even see it, seeing as *we* didn't even notice!

And now:

 

Yes, there is still some under her eye, but Dr. Zuker didn't want to get it all now just in case it pulls the eye open. He said he will get it next time, once the skin has healed and relaxed again.

We are ever so proud of this girl - a girl who never had a single pain med since being in the Operating Room. That blows our mind. No Tylenol. No Advil. Nothing. She bounces back like there is no tomorrow. We are so thankful to God for that.

Her incisions seems to be healing well, which is good so she can go back to school next week again. Her brother sure has enjoyed her home again.....and she has enjoyed being at home as well. Maybe a little too much because she doesn't want to go back to school. But I know once she is back again, she'll like it.

Our next appointment is in November, where Dr. Zuker will check how things are healing, and then we plan the next (possibly last?!) step in this journey. Till then, take care and thanks for reading and traveling with us on this journey!!

Home!! And Just a Few Pictures......

....well, maybe not just a few. How about a whole bunch?!

Before I post some pictures, do note that the less birth mark there is to take off, the less of a change or difference you will see. Right now, it may look like there is no difference when you compare the before and after, but once those steri-strips come off in a week or so, we will really notice the work Dr. Zuker did.

Keziah had no problem going to the hospital on Tuesday morning, even with knowing full well what was about to happen. She was smiley before we left, and in the car, she did what she does best: sang her little heart out :o)

 

Just after 12 noon, Dr. Zuker came by to talk with us. Keziah was excited to give him her crafts that she carefully made for him. You can tell by his reaction that this man "gets" kids. He patiently sat through her little spiel, describing every little thing on her picture :o)

And then, off she went! On her own!!! We clearly see God's presence surrounding her as she does this without a problem. It brings tears to our eyes every time we think of how brave she is.

Finally, late in the afternoon, we could go and see her. Here she is, making sure her class pet, Penny (who desperately needs a wash because she went camping with us, too!) was near her. Penny was given to her to borrow from her teacher and classmates :o)

So, if blood and stuff makes you a bit queasy, don't look too closely at the next pictures. Under the steri-strips are the incisions, so right now it looks like the nevus is still all there. But Dr. Zuker was able to remove most of the nevus under the eye (leaving about 2 mm); he removed everything off her temple. He did this all by doing something like a facelift, cutting the skin under her eye, up her temple and down by her ear and then lifting the cheek flap up. And you know what?! He used all original scar lines, so Keziah has no additional scars!!

 And then the plan was to work on the end of her eyebrow, but seeing that it was already pretty tight, he left that alone and worked at the beginning of her eyebrow, starting by her nose. He excised her eyebrow, making it skinnier till about halfway (which now makes the rest of it look pretty bulky, but that will be taken care of next time). He then lifted the brow a bit, so it now actually has an arch to it. This means that now you can see the lighter nevus under her eyebrow a lot more than before.....but that also will be taken care of next time.

Although she came out of recovery around 5, by 6 she was asking for her broccoli.

And like the last 5 surgeries, Opa came to visit, bringing us a homemade meal made by my mom.

2 hours out of recovery, I knew things were looking really up when I hear, "Mom, is there anything on my nose?!" with a mischievous glint in her eyes :o)

And this morning, that happy glint was still there! Good morning!!

Life is great at the hospital when you have funny nurses, yummy breakfasts and an IV pole you get to drive!

  

 

And before she could order food for lunch, the hospital thought she better be discharged!! Dr. Zuker thought she might be staying in another night due to her eye swelling, but as you can see, so far the swelling isn't so bad at all. So after saying good-bye to Child Life Specialist Shaindy, we went home.

So, here are some BEFORE and AFTER pictures for now:

BEFORE and AFTER of the FRONT:

 

BEFORE and AFTER of the SIDE:

 I will update in a week from now, once the steri-strips come off. Until then, know that this girl is very thankful for all your thoughts and prayers! I read each one to her, and she loved hearing what you had to say. Thank you so much for remembering her these last days! We are so thankful to all of you, and most of all to God for blessing her with such a strong and brave spirit. See you in a week!

Surgery is Done!

It is almost 5:30 in the afternoon now, and we are resting up in our room. Surgery for Keziah went well and took a full 3 hours. Dr. Zuker is pleased with the results. Due to the work being done around her eye, her eye will most likely be swollen closed for a number of days. So he said we may be in here for two nights.

Oh, I gotta go - "Mom, I am hungry." No wonder - it's been 24 hours since she's had food. Broccoli, strawberry ice cream and a bagel with cream cheese coming up! :o)

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers - I will update the blog with pictures once we are home. Take care!! Love from Keziah and her family.

Part Three is Around the Corner!

In less than a week, Keziah will be heading back to the hospital to continue on the journey of removing her freckle.

Next week has crept up on us quickly and quietly, due to life being busy with her in school, camping and everything else that keeps a family busy.

However, there was one other event that we were not counting on that made for some busy days, and that was another trip back to Cincinnati. We were there in August (see last post), where we met some amazing people, two of them being Tanya and Christian. We were blessed to be able to spend some time with them in the hospital, as Christian was fighting melanoma.

A week and a half ago, God called Christian home. While it was and is still so hard to believe and take in, we are so thankful for the time we were able to be with him. "I am so glad I could make him laugh, mom." said Keziah, when I told her that he is now in heaven.

And so, thanks to some amazing friends and family who were able to take the kids at a moment's notice, I made a quick trip down to Cincinnati for three days, to be there for Christian's funeral. It was oh so hard, but it was such a blessing to be able to do these difficult days with some of our nevus family again.

Tanya asked me to take some pictures, which I did, but I am waiting for her permission before I share them here. We pray for Tanya every day, that God will continue to uphold her in the very difficult days, weeks, months and years to come.

It really hit home with Christian's death that melanoma *IS* a risk with the type of birthmark Keziah has. It may be slight, but that risk is there. And so it has made us truly grateful that we are doing what we can to eliminate that risk by removing the birthmark. While there are no studies (yet) that say removing it removes the risk, to us it just seems to make sense. I mean, aren't we always told to watch the little moles on our bodies for changes? And then have them removed if there are changes to lower the risk of it turning into melanoma?

And so, on we go with this journey.

Next Tuesday, Keziah will be admitted in for surgery at 12 noon. No expanders this time (yahoooooooo), but what the plan is, Dr. Zuker will do a procedure called an excision. You can read what that means here. Dr. Zuker is going to cut away the birthmark under her eye, up her temple and shorten her eyebrow as much as he can, as right now it goes way past her eye. Here are some pictures:

Yesterday we went to the doctor's for her pre-op check up, to weigh her, get her vitals and to fill out forms.

Usually I do this with just her, spending some time together, making it a bit of an adventure. But this time we were accompanied by her two cousins, as they are staying with us for a week. That's an adventure in itself, all right!! So here they are, all three boys sitting nicely, waiting patiently:

Keziah has no problem going to the doctor's as long as there are no needles involved. She is also well aware of what is to come and is okay with. She is just nervous about the smelly stuff that puts her to sleep: "They said it smells like fruit, but that is NOT what fruit smells like!" :o)

And not even 10 minutes later, we were out!! I think bringing in the troop helped to move things along quickly :o)

And so we hunker down for the next 5 days to get mentally prepared for another surgery. What better way to do that than to go camping!? And so that is what we will do, to celebrate our Thanksgiving weekend. This is good, because it is hard not to get carried away with our worries and concerns about this surgery - it is *so* close to the eye.......we are praying hard that what is done next week does not distort her eye by pulling it open and down. That is a BIG risk with this surgery. Please pray with us, that God will guide the hands of Dr. Zuker and his team as He has done so far. Thanks!

Doesn't looking at this bright smiley face make you forget all your worries?! Ah, how we love her and her zest for life so much!!