Surgery on lower lip hemangioma

[smurph]

Oh no! We have been there!! I will say a prayer this cold just blows over so you can get the surgery over and done with.

shannon

[nickbar]

Hopefully this passes quickly!

[GinaP]

Surgery went well today. Actually, better than anyone expected. The surgeon, Dr. Grunwaldt, mentioned to us prior to surgery that she is conservative and would rather do more than one surgery than to take too much tissue out. She said that she didn't know exactly what all would be done since she wouldn't know what tissue she had to work with until she was in surgery. Our ultimate goal for this surgery was to have the scar tissue removed. Well, she was able to remove the scar tissue along with a lot of the hemangioma. Most of the redness under her lip is gone. She also stitched together her muscle which was split. This is what was causing her lip to droop. She does have a little scar that goes belop her lipline, but we know in time it will lighten. i really do not mind this scar because it truly is minimal. She has some swelling in her lip, but the Dr. said that it is from all of the work that they did. She really doesn't know how much of the bump is left from the hemangioma vs. what is swelling from the surgery. She did say that there is a good possibility that she won't need another surgery or even the laser treatments. Only time will tell. She said that she wants to give her lip 6 months to a year to settle down. I know that it is only day one, but the results have been beyond my expectations. Dr. Grunwald really did an amazing job on Meg. When I saw her in recovery and looked at her lip for the first time post-surgery, I bawled. That is how good she did. She has disolveable stitches and the incision below her lip is glued. The stitched should last about a week. She is restricted from any type of physical activity or crowds for at least two weeks, which is when we see the surgeon again. I can't even explain what a mess I was all day yesterday with the anticipation of the surgery. I kind of feel silly now. I want to post pictures and will once I get a few more taken through her recovery. Pictures don't do the job that Dr. Grunwaldt did justice. It looks so much better in person than the pictures. Not sure why that is. I will get them posted though.

[smurph]

So glad to hear that she was able to have the surgery and that it went so well. It sounds like the doctor did a fabulous job. It is soooo stressful isn't it? I remember that feeling like it was yesterday. My daughter's bruising/swelling got worse for like the first 36-48 hours and then started going down again. After a couple of weeks it looked so much better and then by about 3 months it looked like it does now. As your doctor mentioned, it does take a while to settle down. I'm so happy for you that it is behind you!! Be sure to take lots of pictures...every few days so you can look back and see the progress. I love to look back at my daughter's pictures because after time you seem to forget somehow. Please post pictures! I'd love to see them! Have a great weekend!!

Shannon

[mrssied]

her recovery is going great! I was really surprised she healed as well as she has. It was a week Thursday and you can't even tell she had anything done. The swelling and stitches have dissolved in her lip and she has been acting completely normal since we came home the day of surgery. We go for her follow-up on Tuesday.
Best of luck to you.

[GinaP]

Had Meg's follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon today. She was very pleased with her recovery so far. This fall they are going to do a laser treatment for the pink/redness that is still under her lip. Other than that, they don't feel that she will need any other work done. She still has a bump on her lip, but the dr. believes that will continue to go down. In a few weeks we have to start giving Meghan a lip massage to help break up the scar tissue from her surgery. But, so far, so good.

[ruthless009]

Glad things went so well, I'll hang onto her name depending on what happens with my sons, his lip looks similar to your daughters but his hasn't gone down yet

[missy]

YAY!! So glad you had a good report. You must be so pleased!

Missy