First Jason and I are making Haleigh a big sister by May! We are very excited to be expecting our 6th child. Haleigh is equally excited.
We are taking a family vacation next week to Disney World. It's been a long time coming and Haleigh can not wait to meet Mickey Mouse. We are all very excited. We have not taken a vacation since Haleigh was born 4 years ago.
Speaking of 4 years ago Haleigh just had her 4th birthday party. She was so happy that it was finally her turn. She's been waiting a long time. Her cake was Tangled but everything else was Hello Kitty. She loved all her gifts and by the time everyone left she was ready to pass out.
The last week of October we took Haleigh for her check up. She is 3foot 4inches tall and 34 pounds. Growing and developing normally.
On to the medical stuff.
About a month ago I decided we should look into seeing a different plastic surgeon. While we really liked the other one the fact is that he is 6-7 hours away, we are having scheduling difficulties, and we can now provide the finances and insurance we could not provide a few years ago. So I scheduled an appointment with a PS in town. I went with high hopes and while he is not the surgeon we need he was very open and honest about his abilities and experience and gave us the number to a PS in Birmingham. Now you may be saying "you took her to Birmingham before" and Yes we did. So the difference was this time I knew so much more and this time I was not scared.
On Tuesday November 13th, my sister Heather and I took Haleigh to Birmingham to see Dr. Grant a facial pediatric surgeon at Children's South. The first thing I said to him was "I'm scared to do expanders" he quickly excused himself and I really didn't know what he was doing. He came back a few mins later with another mom who's son had a Facial/scalp nevus who he had worked on with expanders. There is nothing like meeting another mom who's been exactly where you are sitting. Something until then I had never done before. After a long talk with her and a long talk with Dr Grant we decided to proceed with the expander surgery. It's set for January 14th 2013. She will need a 1 night stay in the hospital. Then we will return home. We will fill the expander with water for 3 months then have it taken out the nevus removed and the skin we expanded will cover the now nevus area. So 2 surgeries. Dr Grant is about 90% sure he can get all of the nevus in one round. That's really great news.
We are ready for this Haleigh is ready for this. She wants it. She's asked for it. I know she is only 4 and doesn't understand surgery or pain or recovery , but she does understand that she has a birthmark and that she wants it off. She ask most everyday to "just take it off ". If only it were that simple.
