Almost didnt happen....

So today is Logan's surgery on his leg, removing the expander and wrapping the lower part of his leg with the expanded skin. Has a cold and his cough just moved into his chest and the anesthesia doctor wanted to cancel surgery and Dr.B said no we must go on, so the anesthesiologist had to go over the extra risks..... Let me tell you how FRICKEN SCARY that was!! I'm soooo scared and I'm blogging to keep a level head. I was ready for today, to have his surgery then when i thought this wasn't going to happen i got scared, i have every thing worked out at home i have the other 2 kids with a sitter for the week. And the chores for the animals are covered and i couldn't imagine having to go home, but then again i couldn't bare the thought of something happening to my baby today!!
   
    I dred every time the moment that i have to say good bye and trust that God has his hand instead of me, Its hard as a mother to be able to do that, Know that you are in another room asking that others watch him and bring him back to me safe!

     I really like Dr. Bauer, he comes off as man of very importance, I get the feeling he isn't told NO very often, The nurse first said to us that if anesthesia said no go on the surgery than that was what it would be.. well not today, Dr. B said we have to weigh the options and he wanted the surgery done. Its unsafe to leave the expander in especially since hes getting sick. so Surgery happened, well is happening. 

Hope i didn't sound to sad.... its been a rough rough morning, I will update later when we are safe and in his room and he is asleep

Making new friends and being connected for life

So I have been glued to Facebook the last couple days because ive been meeting so many families that are in the same life style now as mine.. or should i say that we now have the same life style as them seeing that we are all parents of a nevus little one or have nevus's them selves. I couldnt be happier to be hooked to such AMAZING people! We will returning Feb 15th to chicago for logans next surgery and will hopefuly be meeting Reid Mangold and his parents when they are there the same day for Reids surgery. Im not as good yet at this blog thing as some of the others but im trying to get some up to date pics of logan and his nevus! Again im sooo happy to have "met" all these people it makes the world of living with a nevus not as scary as it was in the begining.

More Expanding...

Well we did another expansion at home today. We had my mom come today to help by distracting Logan, This made it MUCH easier, The last couple times we did the expansion with myself and Steven it didn't go as smooth. Logan cried when we did it the last couple times but with Grandma there cheering him on he was a pretty happy camper... just a little wrinkle in his nose that passed quickly as we expanded 40 mls today... that puts us at 258 mls. we only have about 100 to 150 to go. Thank goodness! We are almost on to the next leg of our journey

Where Our Story Began

Our story began on March 19th 2010. We just had Logan and i heard one of the nurses comment on a mark they thought might be a bruise or possibly a birth mark. I was starting to get upset because i couldn't see any thing and no one answered me at first. Logan's dad Steve was standing there and told me that there was a large dark spot on his leg. We were concerned but the the doctor said that it must just be a birth mark and not to worry at least its not on his face ( I heard this alot ). I was sad for him thinking of being a child knowing he would get teased for this. The next day the pediatrician came in and told us it was a nevus or mole and needed to see a dermatologist, and don't wait to long to do so she told me. So i was like  hmmmm.... a mole weird. A week after Logan was born i took him to my own Ped Doctor and she referred me to a Dermatologist in Chicago that works through Children's Memorial Hospital. We went to see her and she then told us that it was a Giant Congenital Nevus and that the place in which his is there was probably nothing to do for it, ( it wraps all the way around his leg) so we just prepared our selves for the fact that he would deal with this for his life. Dr. W. did refer us to a couple Ped. Plastic surgeons, she said we could get an appointment with either one and no rush. So i took my time... I was in no rush to talk about surgery and i thought it wouldn't matter, so a few months went by and finally i got the "mothers intuition" that i needed to contact a Doctor, so I called Dr. Bauer. I chose him from the 2 names because it just felt right. When i called and left a message Wendy called back with in 20 minutes and Logan had an appointment the next day to see Dr. Bauer. That's when it hit me this was going to take a major turn though I had no idea what direction yet.
 We made it to Dr. Bauer's office the next day and when he was talking to us the room was spinning and I was trying not to be sick as i listened to him tell me how he would have at least 3 surgeries and what each one would entail. I cried sitting in his office and held my baby and wondered how was I ever going to survive this! 
 We weren't even out of Skokie when Wendy called me with the surgery dates all set the first was in 3 weeks from that day. She was so wonderful to me on the phone and we cried together as she talked me through my shock. I will never for get her! We arrived the day before Logan's surgery to meet with Mim and Susan ( Dr. B's nurses) to learn how the skin expanders work, well I wasn't doing so well and Wendy was worried about me so she contacted Beth Nagel, Sully's wonderful mommy! We have kept in touch on line and shes been more wonderful and helpful than she will ever know. Still i was sick about the surgery the next morning.
 We got to Highland Park Hospital for Logan's surgery and I must say the single most hardest thing i have ever done was handing my baby off to some one i have never met for her to take my baby in to a man i just met to cut in to him.... I lost it as they took Logan to surgery, I know he will never remember these moments that i will NEVER forget! That eases the pain some. I was on pins and needles until Dr. Bauer pulled Steven and I in to a little room and told us Logan did just fine and i could see him very soon! well there is more to get to the point we are now but i will blog more later night :)

Ok Im back, After Logan was brought to the recovery room we sat and waited for his room up stairs there we were able to talk to our recovery nurse and she told us how wonderful Dr. Bauer is! At this point we had heard that from many many people. That made us feel much better. We also learned how Dr.Bauer has paitents from all over the world. That to is a compfert. The hospital stay was kind of a whirl wind of emotions and trying to keep Logan peaceful. I was so scared to go home, at least there we had help.

After we got home it was stressful at first, luckily I am an EMT so I was able to do all my bandage changes at home with out having to be shown first. We went back 10 days later to have the drain removed (thank goodness) and the first expansion done. Now that was not as bad as i thought it was going to be. Logan didn't even notice that he was poked with a needle! The following week we went back so that I could show Mim and Susan that I could handle doing the expansion at home... well I was soooo nervous that I spilled the saline, I ruined my needle, I had to poke my baby 2 times before i got it right and did my first expansion.