And So It Begins

When our first born arrived on earth (not so cooperatively) she looked a bit... different than we were expecting. She had a large birthmark covering her entire back and a bunch of 'spots' everywhere else. We loved her just the way God made her and thanked Him for her. When faced with the option that many Nevus families take to have surgery for removal of giant birthmarks we thought, God made her this way, we will leave her that way unless something goes wrong and if she wants to remove it when she's old enough to decide to, we will support that too. At 6 months old a little lump appeared in her giant Nevus. It was biopsied, found to be benign and left alone until it grew too big to hide and was removed at 15 months old. That was 5 years ago. She has been fine and has made friends with her rare condition. 3 months ago she came home from school with a blood soaked shirt. Her skin had just ripped on it's own after she bumped gently into a doorway. No biggie, got it checked by the ped. derm. and went on with life. Last week it happened again. She fell off something in gym and another tear, more blood. When we had our regular derm. checkup she found a spot that concerned her.... probably scar tissue from the first injury but also looks a bit like Melanoma so a biopsy was ordered. Met with the plastic surgeon today to discuss the biopsy. We also discussed placing a skin expander in the front of the left shoulder, of which the back of is the area tearing. The surgeon agreed to do the biopsy and place the expander. So the family that said it would never get on the expander and removal train appears to be on it now. And the Bug is not the least bit scared! She is excited that it will mean taking away the area that keeps bleeding. It will be a long process. it may at times be a painful process. She may have moments that scare her. And there is the risk of things going wrong. It may get infected. It may rip through her skin causing a big mess and stopping the process. It may go perfectly smoothly and result in better than expected results. Our prayers are for her best interest and a smooth process. And we are so thankful to our friends that feel like family over at www.nevus.org that we can turn to for support during the whole process.