Sadie's Surgery

Earlier this summer, I took Sadie in for her annual dermatology appointment. I started taking her a few years ago to a pediatric dermatologist just for a skin check. She has fair skin & a lot of freckles & moles. Sophie on the other hand has darker skin & hardly any moles so we haven't really had her checked. I was a little nervous because Sadie has a big mole on her upper back & I noticed in the spring a big, black spot had come up in the middle of it. I pointed it out at the doctor & right away, he said that wasn't normal. Given the look of it, that it was new, her age & her parent's cancer history, he said he wanted it off. Not just razored off & biopsied, but literally cut out. At her age, having something come up like that is not normal. Especially in a spot that hardly sees the sun. The bad news is that he had to refer her to a pediatric surgeon. That took a few weeks to have his consultation & he agreed. The other bad news it that they wanted to put her under to do it & then it would be 2 weeks of healing. No swimming, no physical activity, etc. So we gambled & let her enjoy the rest of summer since she was on the swim team & literally swimming every single day. Then we went on vacation. Then school started. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago & we finally had her surgery:

I honestly wanted to do it earlier in August when summer was winding down but the doctor took most of the month off for his vacation & then we had to wait until after Labor Day. Thankfully, he thought we were ok waiting. Suprisingly, Sadie wasn't as nervous as we thought she would be. I think she would have if she would have been awake for it, but since they explained she would be asleep, that definitely helped. We scheduled it on a Friday morning so she would have the weekend to recover:

This girl was so brave! I was literally shocked at how well she did. She has hardly been sick or had any injuries so we didn't know how she would do. They gave her some valium to calm her down & then they took her back. All she remembers is going to the Mickey Mouse room (her words) & then going to sleep. One hour later & we got to visit with the doctor & finally see her in recovery:

The doctor said they were able to remove the mole & the surrounding area. She had multiple disposable stitches on the inside & then 4 stitches on the outside to reinforce the area. When we saw her, she was awake & she asked for a popsicle right away. And she was hilarious. I know that sounds bad to say, but we were so fortunate. Other kids in recovery were crying, screaming, sick & she just acted loopy :) So loopy that Bryan took a video & I was taking pictures because it was so funny. She kept staring at the lights & slurring her words when she spoke. And the would fall asleep eating her popsicle & then she would drop it. Or miss her mouth completely:

She also didn't want to stay. I think all of the other kids were bothering her & she really wanted to leave so we were gone quicker than I expected:

She couldn't change clothes or get out of there fast enough. At first she wanted to walk & didn't want to sit in the wheel chair but by the time we got to our car she kind of liked it :)

They scared me into thinking that just because she didn't get sick at the hospital, she probably would in the car. So I sat in the back & was prepared, but poor girl passed out as soon as we got on the road:

We tried so hard to get her to calm down & rest at the hospital but she wouldn't. Thank goodness it was a 45 minute ride home & she slept the entire way, which is not like her. But guess what happened when we got home? She was back to normal again! I mean seriously, she was hungry, asking to eat, wanted to watch tv. She hardly rested at all! I made her stay home & she liked watching tv, but she probably would have gone to school if I would have let her. 

The best part of the day were all of the gifts, phone calls, texts & prayers. I know it was a simple procedure, but it was the first time we have ever had to do anything so the unknown was hard. She was elated when Sophie came home from school:

She got cards, balloons, gift cards, cookies, gum & several home made cards:

She has recovered nicely over the last 2 weeks even though she had to skip a volleyball & soccer game. She finally gets her stitches out next week so she is slowly getting back to normal. But the best news of all is that today, we finally got her pathology report back. Praise God the mole was benign! So technically it didn't have to be removed after all, but they considered it pre-cancerous & said as young as she is & since I have had several cancerous spots removed already, hers probably would have turned into something at any time. So I am thankful we had it removed anyway:

If anything, it's been a good reminder that we can always do a better job taking care of our skin. Thank goodness the girls realize the importance of hats, suncreen & rash guards. And annual skin checks! Hopefully they will continue these good habits as they get older.