Sunday, November 30, 2008

Pre-op Day

We went to Dr. Reinisch's new office at Cedars Sinai Medical Center today. It's *nice* with a beautiful view over the Beverly Hills area. You could even see the Hollywood sign from a patio adjacent to his waiting room. Dang.

So, he looked at it, and pointed out something that I hadn't really considered: the grafted skin on her ear has always had a flaky dryness to it. I always just assumed that that was the nature of the graft. Come to find, that we should have been cleaning it out a little to help the skin stay smooth and healthier. Because it's a graft, it's simply not going to behave like "native skin" as he called it, but that there are things we can be doing to keep it smoother, less dry, and generally healthier. Now to just get her to let me. That's a MUCH bigger challenge than you might think. Feisty little thing!

After the appointment, we went to the Mecca for Little Girls: the American Girl store at The Grove. Here's what surprised me: she knew exactly what she wanted - the colonial girl, Elizabeth - and once we found her and one outfit, she was pretty much done. Crazy, huh? We walked in and the 'concierge' (yes, they have a CONCIERGE) said to plan for 2-3 hours. My little speed shopper was done in less than an hour.

Here's a few pics:



She's had a grand old time with her new friend since we got back to the hotel this afternoon. After, of course, a giant bowl of spaghetti at Mulberry Pizza Company (good):



So, tomorrow morning we have to be at the surgery center at 6:00 am. Those of you who know me realize how horribly painful that's going to be for me. Worth it, though, huh?

The surgery is expected to last approximately 1.5 hours, and as I mentioned in a previous post, there will be a skin graft. The usual wound care stuff that comes along with these surgeries - sponge, dressings, etc - will occur, but at least we have the advantage of a "been-there-done-that." We have a clue on what to do, when to call, and how to clean it. That's good. The first time you have to deal with caring for a skin graft site or surgery site can be humbling.

So, I will be updating tomorrow. Thanks, as always, for reading.

No comments: