"Hmmm... have a long way to go"

This is the direct quote from the plastic surgeon whom we saw last Wednesday when he looked at H. Thankfully, he has two wonderful nurses who work for him who are great at talking people back off the edge of the cliff, and my initial panic of having to postpone surgery was calmed. We are now expanding every four days and putting between 35cc and 40cc of saline in each expander.

Here is what H. looks like now. (Remember, I have her permission to share. People are funny, so I feel the need to say that.)

As I look at the photograph of H., I realize that it sort of looks as though I have used some sort of photo distortion program, but I haven't. You can see that the area being expanded is much more noticeable now.

Here is the view from the back. The expander is under her scalp (the upper left section in the photo), and you can see that it is far more noticeable as well.

We have to do at least five more expansions before surgery. These pictures were taken after two more expansions from the previous ones I shared and we're putting in more saline, so you can begin to imagine where they will be by the end of the month.

Everyone, now join me in hyperventilating and flapping your arms while you scream and run around the room. This is the only way I can then be calm and acting normally while I am doing the expansion and H. is telling me how much she doesn't like it. I don't like it, either. In fact, I hate it. I hate the fact that I'm the one (for the most part) doing this to her. Yet, I have to act as though it is the most normal thing in the world.

Normal, yeah. Insert needle in head, inject saline, disfigure child. April 28th cannot come soon enough. Join me in my fervent prayers that nothing happens to make us postpone surgery.