Pages

Friday, March 20, 2009

Flashback Friday :: one year ago today

Thanks to Kristin for her fun Flashback Friday idea! Time goes by so quickly, it's nice to go back through our memory and picture files to revisit where we've been. Here's a timely Flashback Friday from our family.

Last year, March 20th.

About this time last year, Mary Kate was sitting in a chair in the driveway watching her siblings and some neighbor friends play on their bikes and scooters.


She was on drugs...after coming out of surgery earlier that morning.

It was her second surgery (first surgery was when she was 18 months old) to remove regrowth of the lymphangioma mass on her torso. After that was removed, she had another surgeon come in a do a scar revision on her old large scar.

Here she is in recovery.

(She was talking on my cell to her siblings to tell them all about her surgery. They were very impressed with her bravery. We all were!)

She took it all very well. Her surgeons couldn't even hide their looks of surprise either when they walked into her recovery room for the surgery follow up. She was so bright and cheery!

Their goal was for her to keep down at least one popsicle before they could send her home. By the time her surgeons got to her recovery room, she had downed her second popsicle and was smiling and talkative.

We were all very proud of Mary Kate. She was our little champ.
(For the record, she only briefly cried once throughout the entire process of her month-long recovery, and that was only because she was uncomfortable with gas! Okay, I may need to delete this part if she reads it!)

Here's a before surgery photo. (The dark spot in the middle is the lymphangioma regrowth.)


Here's what it looked like the day we took off her bandages--2 weeks after surgery.


Here's what it looks like now, a year after surgery and many tubes of Mederma.


A little closer...


She says she doesn't mind the scar,

"...except right here...

...where it's all bumpy."

4 comments:

mrs boo radley said...

Rockin' scar!

Does she have a clean bill of health now as far as that's concerned?

Kristin said...

Goodness! What a sweetheart of a trooper! Does the Mederma really make the appearance of the scar less noticeable? I have always wondered after seeing those commercials. Very interesting Flashback Friday (and thank you for giving me credit). It must be a happy milestone for you, too that it has been a year since her surgery. :)

L a u r a said...

Kristin, Doctors seem to think Mederma improves the appearance of scars. (The active ingredient is a actually a derivative/extract of onion.) It's difficult to say whether it works better than cocoa butter or vitamin E. I think time made the scar lighter. Pressure and frequent massage make it softer, flatter, and smoother.

Again, thanks for the Flashback Friday idea!

Angela said...

OH my goodness- how could it have been a whole year that's gone by? She looks older. Which is exactly why i'm not sure I could handle doing flashback Friday. It makes me sad to look back and see how quickly my kids change in just a year!