Surgery

I haven't really talked about it on here, but I wanted to record the details so I wouldn't forget them. When Gracie was born, she had a birthmark on her middle finger on her left hand. It really didn't look like anything to worry about until about January. Suddenly, it started to grow larger, raise up and change colors. We mentioned it at her 18 month appointment in early February and her pediatrician said that although she was sure it was nothing, she would feel better if we saw a dermatologist. She said it would take a while to get in to see the dermatologist and that it was okay, no rush. I made an appointment with Dr. Lucky, a pediatric dermatologist for May 5. Since it was a Friday morning, Nick couldn't go so Mom went with me. The dermatologist looked at it and said that it would need to be removed. It didn't look cancerous, but would continue to grow (and it was growing fast!!) and would increase Gracie's risk of melanoma as she got older. Because of the size, Dr. Lucky suggested we see a plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital and said that a skin graft would most likely have to be done. I called Children's as soon as I got home and they were able to get us in the following Tuesday. We saw Dr. Gordan and we really liked him. He agreed it needed to be removed sooner than later, but suggested we avoid a skin graft by having it removed in two separate surgeries. We thought that sounded much better than a skin graft and Gracie's first surgery was on May 20.
We had to have her at Children's Hospital at 6:45am. They took us back right away and had us change Gracie into a hospital gown and asked us a million questions. They had originally told me that I would be able to hold her while they put the gas mask on her to knock her out. However, the OR they had her scheduled in did not have an induction room so I wouldn't be able to hold her for that. They gave her a medicine that made her very loopy and after talking with the doctor, we walked her to the OR doors. Gracie was getting so tired that she couldn't hold her pacifier in her mouth and it kept falling out. Everytime it fell out, she would start giggling. It was the cutest (and saddest!) thing in the world. We met the surgery team and Gracie immediately took a liking to the male nurse... LOL.... already a flirt. She didn't even notice that when it was time to walk away. We were only in the waiting room for about 30 minutes before the dr came to talk to us. He was able to remove about 3/4 of the birthmark and said that everything went as expected. (They sent the tissue to be tested and it came back fine.) We had to wait another 15 minutes or so before they called us back to the recovery room. Gracie was already awake and a nurse was rocking her and giving her a sippy cup of apple juice. She still had the IV in and was still pretty out of it. I took her and rocked her and she slowly started waking up more. And that's when she got MAD! She started throwing her sippy cup and threw a fit when the nurse offered her a popsicle but wouldn't let her hold it herself (she tried to grab the popsicle with her left hand and the nurse didn't want melted popsicle on her wound.) Then she started pulling at her IV and at that point, I had to give her to Nick (because I was getting light-headed... I hate IVs). The nurse went ahead and removed the IV and said we could leave when we thought she was ready. Gracie was crying/screaming and couldn't be comforted so we changed her clothes and left as quickly as we could. She cried all the way home. Nick had to leave to get some motrin (thanks to the tylenlol recall, I had thrown all of ours out) and Gracie couldn't/wouldn't calm down. She walked around the living room and threw anything she could. Then she would throw herself on the couch and cry/scream. I turned on some cartoons and that seemed to help a little. Nick came home with medicine and food and that really helped. She ate a few chicken nuggets and fries and then took a nice long nap. When she woke up, she was back to her old self and that was the end of it! The dr. explained that her finger wouldn't be wrapped (just stitches and glue) because the bandage would only cause her to be more upset. The glue started flaking off the next day and over the next two weeks, her finger started healing. Now, all the scabs have come off and it looks more like normal skin every day. We have to have the second surgery at the end of summer. While I'm not looking forward to it, I'm not nearly as anxious about it as the first!