The Next Steps are In Place

So yesterday was Keziah's appointment at Sick Kids, a time for Dr. Zuker to have a look as to how well she is healing, and then make plans for the next bit of removal.

Seeing as Lincoln was coming with us, and that the traffic was going to be a nightmare, we decided to make it a bit of a family adventure. We took the train all the way in! This being the first time on a train for them (second time for Nathan...;), everyone was pretty excited!!

While taking the train wasn't any quicker, it sure saved us from sitting through all of this:

But the adventure didn't stop when the train did - it was then off to head underground, to enjoy a quick ride on the subway:

At last we made it to the hospital, with a bit of time to spare for Lincoln to enjoy some of the activities. The last time Lincoln was at any of her appointments was 2 years ago! He was 6 months old. Sob!!

After the appointment, timbits were enjoyed and then back onto the subway, then the train to go home.

Oh, yes, before we left, Ms. Valentina spoiled Keziah with a book and some extra special beads - even train beads!!!

So, the plan: Keziah is booked for surgery mid-October, where Dr. Zuker will do serial excision under her eye, up her temple, and under her eyebrow, as much as he can without distorting the eye. He will also shorten her eyebrow, meaning, cut away the darkest end of it, which goes too far past her eye.

Even though Dr. Zuker said he has space in July to do this, he and I both concluded that we would leave her be this summer so she can enjoy all the activities summer has to offer. So she misses a bit of school come Fall. It's *just* kindergarten (I can't believe I wrote that....). She most likely will miss a week or two and that's it. Nothing I can't do with her, seeing as I have practiced on hundreds of kindergarten kids before she came along :o)

And so, this girl looks forward to swimming and camping.....but not the bug bites! Yes, that is one bug bite on her forehead. It swelled up even more! It really does look like she has an expander (in its very early stages) on her forehead!!

So, we will "see" you sometime in October! Until then, have a great summer (or winter....as I know I have some Australian friends that read this) and stay safe!

3 Month Post Surgery Appointment

* Note: I spent the last weeks reading up on watermarks etc. on my photos, especially after what happened to one of Keziah's pictures (you can read about that on the post before this one); however, the more studying I did on it, the truth of the matter is, if someone wants to steal your picture, they can and will, even with a watermark on it. That's just the reality of pictures being "out there". And so, after much searching, we will continue to post pictures and not bother with a watermark. As many articles stated, putting a watermark on the pictures takes extra time (I have yet to find a program that makes it easy to do and not permanent - meaning, I can still use the pictures for her regular photo album without each picture having a watermark on it), which in the end, wouldn't make much of a difference anyway. The only way to really have a watermark work its best is to have it large and cover the center of the picture. Yeah, kind of pointless then to post a picture when you can't see the image very well. So on we shall go, mindful and alert. And once again, in case you missed it - THANKS a WHOLE bunch to those who went to bat for Keziah, including the very first person who notified me about it.

After a nice 3 month break of weekly hospital visits, tomorrow we go back for a follow up visit with Dr. Zuker. At this visit, he will have a look at how Keziah's incisions are healing, as well as make a plan for around her eye.

Keziah's incisions have healed up, with an open spot here and there where a stitch is making its way through. But other than that, they are all sealed up. Her head must have really done some growing in the last 3 months as the scar lines have widened considerably.

Until we do scar revision (most likely once she is a teenager, unless Dr. Zuker comes up with a plan for this tomorrow), we are thankful for her thick hair which, when styled certain ways, covers the gaps pretty nicely:

The hair that was shaved off is growing, about 2.5 inches long now. And because of the top of her hair now being on the side of her head due to the stretched skin, her hair length is quite uneven. That means her next appointment will be for a good hair cut (are you reading this, Lynne? :o)

(you can see the locks on the left that are longer than the rest of her hair length)

Keziah knows where we are going and is fine with it - especially when the answer to her question of "will he do anything to me?" was answered in the way she was hoping - Nope. :o)

(no, that isn't an expander in the middle of her forehead but a bug bite!! At the rate it's growing, it looks like we may have some extra skin :o)

We will keep you updated as to how tomorrow's appointment goes and what the next steps are. Thanks for reading!!

It's Been Awhile.....

Yesterday it was 2 months since Keziah had her last big surgery to remove a large part of her scalp nevus, so I thought I'd give a quick little update as to how she is doing.

Well, what can I say. She is doing well!!

She is happy and goofy a lot of the time, enjoying life like a 4 year old should be, without having to worry about weekly fill ups and the stress that all comes with that.

When people ask her how she is doing, she is thrilled to tell them that she doesn't have to go to the hospital for a "whole week!" :o)

Speaking of the hospital, about a month ago, something very special came in the mail for Keziah - something that was mailed by Ms. Valentina, our "check in" lady at the Plastics clinic!!!

Keziah was quite surprised and excited with her gift of a new hat. THANK YOU, Ms. Valentina!!!

Now onto her incisions and how they are healing. I must say, these incisions have taken a long time to heal up. We are still dealing with scabs and having to clean her incisions at least once a day. But it's getting there, looking much better than even a month ago.

We are eager for her hair to grow back where it was shaved. Once that has filled in, it'll definitely cover the incisions that will not have hair. I'll be honest, I find the incisions wide (wider than I thought they'd be...) and they will only widen more as her head grows. So I definitely see some scar revision that will need to be done in the far future, once her head is done growing.

But we are able to cover up the scar pretty good as she does have lots of hair

 Keziah is 4.5 years old, which means when we go out in public (which is all the time), people now ask her what is wrong with her eye, and not me. Usually she handles it quite well, but we did have an incident a few weeks ago which made her hide her face into me. When we talked about it later, she burst into tears, crying "I don't like it when everyone always talks about my eyebrow." This made her mother burst into tears :o( Oh how I would give anything to have my daughter walk out of the door and not have a single person ask her what's wrong with her eye/eyebrow.

But this incident was definitely a teaching moment, and so we had a good chat as to how to handle it when someone is obnoxious. She recognized that it is not nice to treat someone like that, and by how she felt, she now knows not to ever point or be rude to someone else. We also talked about how we should react to people who do this to her.

It didn't take long before we were back out in public and someone asked her about her eye. She shrugged and said, "It's just my birthmark.". She told me later that she didn't mind that the man asked her.

Keziah still has no problem with her freckle and actually quite likes it. It's just the attention it receives, she does not like. She does not like being the center of attention in the best of times.

We are so proud of her. We see often that the Lord has blessed her with a maturity that has her handle herself well in situations that would make me wring someone's neck.

We go back to see Dr. Zuker on June 12th for a follow up, as well as a plan of "what's next" and "when". I will update after that appointment.

The sun is shining more - yay - which means a hat is a fixture on this girl's head to protect her freckle and scars from the sun.

 Thanks for reading and enjoy the month of May!!

Good-bye Drain! Good-bye Weekly Appointments!!

Yesterday, Tuesday,  March 18th, we once again woke up early and nosed our way back to Toronto. I do believe we could put our car on auto pilot now. It has pretty much been trained to go that way. Well, it'll have to be untrained as we don't have to go back until June! Yay!! That's 3 months from now!!! We have been going to Toronto weekly since November. And now, no more. We are so thankful!

But back to yesterday - the day to say good-bye to her drain. Keziah was a little nervous as she knew she had to put on the mask to help her fall asleep. She despises the mask and the smells that come from it to knock her out. But she did it!! It was the first time I was there with her. She stated this for the last few days, that she would like me to be in the "sleeping room" with her.

Man, if you've never seen your child be put to sleep or watch them come out of it, wow. It is quite something. Thankfully that while this was the first time for me with her, it was not the first time overall. Years ago, I was with my niece (Hi, Robin!!:o) who was 5 or 6 at the time, and she had to be put to sleep. So I have seen it before. But yeah, it isn't the most fun thing to be a part of. Especially when your child is foaming at the mouth, jerking all over the place and looking like she is gasping for breath.

But, 10 minutes later and she was already eating a freezie. It was an orange one because as I found out, "It's the colour of Winnie the Pooh." Oh. I always find it so neat to know what's going on in their little minds and what makes them choose particular things :o)

Nurse Steve helping Keziah as she was still feeling a bit wobbly:

Because we were done so early (by 8:30 am), we thought we'd hang around the hospital a bit longer so that we weren't sitting in traffic to go home. So time was well spent in the play room, much to the delight of this 4 year old!

And then we enjoyed breakfast together:

Just before we went home, we paid a visit to our very special friend, Ms Valentina. She was pleasantly surprised to see us, but had a bunch of beautiful pink bravery beads ready for Keziah. After big hugs, we said our good byes and off we went, back home to relieve Oma from this rascal :o)

And so, here she is, 2 weeks post surgery. She is healing up nicely. Her hair is coming in where it was shaved. There are a few open spots, but Dr. Zuker was not concerned:

Her incisions:

Yup! She is looking great!!

And still has whacks of hair! Here it is all in a pony tail.

As I stated at the beginning, we won't be back until June. This will be a follow-up, as well as setting something in place to deal with under and beside her eye. Her eyebrow will be last, which he figures he won't touch until next year.

So that means, other than a post or two before June, this will be the last one for awhile. I do have another blog that you are more than welcome to read, but it is not about her birthmark; it is just our family blog. If interested, you can find it here: Helder Happenings.

Keziah would like to thank you for all the love that has been shown to her by you. We would also like to thank you for the many different ways in which you showed your support. I am so thankful I started this blog 2 years ago, not only to keep everyone updated, but through the blog, we have "met" many individuals and families that have a nevus owner. There are plans in the works to have a gathering in Ohio sometime in July or August that we plan to attend. We look so forward to this!!

Above all, we praise God for watching over His little lamb the last 2 years on this journey. We have seen His protection time and time again, which continues to humble us and be filled with gratitude.

So if nothing happens from now until June, this blog will be fairly quiet. Thanks again so much for reading, and the Star of the Blog says Good-Bye (for now!)

 

Has it Really Only Been Less than a Week?!

I was going to update a week post surgery, but a number of people have been asking how Keziah is doing. So I figured I would do one now.

Just a quick question........Keziah had surgery just a few days ago, right? The reason I ask is, well, the pictures will tell you; other than the drain coming out of her head as well as looking like a grease monkey (thanks to the Polysporin), one would never know she had surgery. She has picked up right where she left off - happy, spunky, and no pain.

Here she is, the day we got home, climbing on the counters to get things out of her reach. This is just over 24 hours since she came out of the recovery room. Crazy girl.

The next day, Lincoln came home. Guess who was the patient, laying on the couch, being attended to? Nope, not Keziah. She was the doctor :o)

It truly has been amazing in seeing how quickly she recovers. It's actually quite funny - this afternoon at lunch, she was crying because of a teeny tiny little scratch on her finger. And yet she hasn't shed a tear about the very long incisions that are covering her head. What a girl.

And a few close ups of her incisions. The handiwork of Dr. Zuker amazes me (and many others). You cannot see a single stitch. All it is, are seams. As one stated, Dr. Zuker is the Michaelangelo of surgeons. And he is right. I have seen many incisions and nevus removal, but I have yet to see incisions without stitching.

These pictures were taken 3 days post surgery. You can hardly see the incision along her hairline and down her ear (don't mind the matted hair - tomorrow she'll get to enjoy her first shower since surgery, so it's still all plastered with Polysporin. It also makes it look like she has very thin hair, but it's the hair sticking together in clumps.)

Keziah has withstood the cleanings of her incisions like a trooper and each time it gets easier. Twice a day we pull out the saline water, Q-tips and Polysporin (soon we'll be switching to Vaseline as that is easier on the skin). Someone else was feeling he needed a cleaning as well (his nickname is "Me, too!")

So, as you can see, recovery is going very well for this girl.

Thanks for all the love, care and concern that you have shown to our precious daughter!