Gearing Up for Fill #1

It is the eve of fill number 1. The first of many to come as those two expanders become larger and stretch the skin needed to replace Keziah's birth mark on her scalp.

After finding out how large these expanders are, some have asked why they are so much bigger than last time. The reason being is that there is so much  more nevus to remove this time than last time. It is hard to imagine the birthmark being larger than what was on her face, but the mark on her scalp is quite a bit bigger. You just can't really see it and so it is easily forgotten.

The following pictures will show the area that is all birthmark, as well as the type of hair that comes out of her birthmark. As you can see below, her hair on the left side is very coarse, kinky and dry. That is why her hair is always done up, to control that wild hair. This hair also does not get wet. Water just runs off of it:

With her last removal, some of her scalp nevus was removed off the top. For the following pictures, I parted the hair along the edge of the birthmark on her scalp. All that you see on the inside of the part, all the way to her scar line along her hairline, is her scalp nevus.

To give you a better idea as to how much is on her scalp, I pulled up some baby pictures of her. When she was born, her hair was jet-black....and so was her birthmark, which interestingly enough didn't have a stitch of hair on it. But that sure changed in a hurry! Within a few months, her jet-black hair had mostly fallen out and now her birthmark was covered in hair! So when she was born, you couldn't really see how far back her birthmark went, as it all blended in. But once she lost her baby hair, you could really see the nevus. All that black you see on her left side is birthmark (not the black on the back....that's still baby hair that hadn't fallen off yet)

And one more...not of her birth mark, but of her and her oh-so-squish-able cheeks she had. Such a dolly!

So, yes, what is left is much larger than what was taken off of her face. And that is why the expanders are so large. For those of you who don't know what an expander looks like, here is a picture:

All of it is under the skin, including the port (that white lid looking thing that is on the end of the tube). To fill it up, a needle is put through the skin and into the port. Then saline water is syringed through.

Tomorrow we go in for 11 to have both filled up a bit. I do plan on keeping a weekly photo update like last time, that way if you do see her in person, you hopefully won't be too shocked. It is gradual but it will definitely change her look for a few months. You can already see the top expander if you look carefully at her hairline:

Quick funny story.....she was making a chain link for our Christmas tree. I challenged her to make it as tall as she was. After a while she measured herself against it and then piped up "Oh yeah! I have to put more on. I forgot I had a bubble on my head." :o)

She has no problems going tomorrow. We will see how she does during the actual fill. That is the part I am dreading about this whole thing. Last time she absolutely freaked out every.single.time. I am hoping that it may be easier this time around because she is older. We shall see. In the meantime, we will focus on the fact that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.......we already have a surgery date for removal!! February 19th here we come!!!

P.S. Keziah isn't the only one older.....so is this guy. Last time he was four months old when we started the fills.

This time he is 23 months old!!!

Proof again how quickly time goes. And that will be same for the next 2.5 months. We ask for your prayers, that these fill-ups may go well and that they aren't too stressful for Keziah. Thank you once again for reading!!