Second Surgery

Exactly one week ago this morning, Ani had her second surgery. And it was a littler rougher than Round One.

We started with a very early morning, dragging the kids out of bed around 3am. The drive up to Seattle takes about 3 hours or so, and Ani had to be checked in at 6:45am. Thankfully, as early as that sounds, it actually worked out pretty well. The kids were able to rest during the drive, and Ani was less affected by the Thou Shalt Not Eat or Drink Anything After Midnight rule this time (was much harder for her to avoid food when the operation was scheduled in the afternoon).

She was in very good spirits when we arrived, too, all things considered. She danced around, looked at the fish, played with the toys… She wasn’t even upset by the hospital socks this time.

As always, the staff at the Seattle Children’s Hospital were outstanding. Every person you encounter at that place is kind, caring, and seems to know what they’re doing. Definitely makes it easier when The Time comes.

The actual operation took about the same amount of time as the first one. From the time the anesthesiologists walked her down the hall until the moment they paged us back to recovery to wait for her, about 60-90 minutes passed.

Couple things different this time around:

1. We didn’t get to wait in recovery during the procedure. This time, they sent us away and paged us when they were finishing up. Can’t say we liked it at first, but in the end I think it was better. Gave us a chance to recharge, and provided a bit of a distraction. Couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, though, drinking coffee in the cafeteria while she was under the doctors’ care.
2. There was considerably more facial featuring distortion, swelling, and bruising this time. This operation came a lot closer to the corner of her mouth, so the edge was pulled fairly dramatically. For several days after the operation, her mouth would remain slightly open in her relaxed state. She could still close it while eating, speaking, etc., but it was little disconcerting. It gets better every day, though, as do the swelling and bruising.
3. More pain. Last time, Ani only complained about pain for the first day or two, and then only infrequently. This time, she’s asked for the medicine much more often and for longer after the operation. A week later, it’s finally mostly subsided.

Heartbreaking moment of this trip: when we called grandma the next day to let her know how things went and Ani decided she didn’t want to be seen. Ani was more self-conscious about the swelling/scarring this time and didn’t want grandma to come over during the first couple days because she didn’t want her to see the wound. For the same reason, I won’t be posting post-op pictures this time around. Perhaps in a few weeks, if Ani’s OK with people seeing it after it’s had more time to heal, we’ll reconsider.

At this point, the vast majority of the nevus is gone. Judging by the amount they’ve removed in the first two operations, it seems likely that we’ll probably only need one more to remove the remaining portion of the nevus. We don’t yet know, however, if she’ll need any additional operations after that to help clean up the scar as much as possible.

Her post-op follow-up appointment is scheduled for a few days before Christmas, and if things go the same as last time, we’ll probably have another follow-up appointment around May or so to get the green light for Operation Number Three.