Miss Sloane was born with a small skin tag next to her ear. Actually, also a smaller one on her jawline that fell off pretty quickly. Apparently, it's pretty common and we were sure that our pediatrician would remove it at our first visit. There he told us that these days they don't do anything with growths on the face for at least a year. I will be honest and admit that it bothered me at first. John would say the same. We realized just how lucky we were to have such a healthy girl, but you want everyone to see your baby being just as perfect as you know she is. Plus we worried as she got older (and she would sometimes play with it) that she would one day yank it off - ouch. Of course, we quickly forgot it was there until someone would ask what it was - usually a kid. I love how honest and curious they are they are. A conversation with one of her cousins recently went something like this...
Q: "What's this on Sloane's ear?"
A: "It's called a skin tag. An extra piece of skin that she was born with."
Q: "What does it do?"
A: "It doesn't do anything and the doctor's will remove it when she gets a little bit older."
Q: "Oh. Does Sloane have friends?"
A: "Yes."
Q: "Do they know that she has this?"
A: "Yes."
Q: "Do her friends have them too?"
Our doc referred us to the plastics department at Childrens, which seemed a little over dramatic for something so small but we booked our appointment and headed in last week thinking they just remove it and we'd be done. We came to find out that it would actually require a small surgery, general anesthesia and all.
So we headed to the new Bellevue facility today for Sloane's first (and hopefully last) plastic surgery.
Big gown for such a little girl.
It was much tougher than both John and I expected. Trying to hold/comfort her while she struggled against the tiny gas mask being held over her mouth - not easy. I'm just glad they made us leave before they put the IV in her teeny little arm. it was a super short procedure so we spent just 20 minutes in the waiting room with Mimi before they called us in to see her. If we thought seeing her go under the anesthesia was tough, seeing her come out was 100 times worse. My sweet, smiley, giggly little girl was screaming bloody murder, thrashing like crazy, and shuddering. it was rough. The nurses were great and we finally got her calmed down enough to get her out of there. By the time we drove out of the parking garage she was quiet and a minute later she was asleep. She went right down when we got home and slept hard for 4 hours then woke up smiling and happily yelling mama and dada. So glad to have our girl back!
Poor girl couldn't eat anything this morning before we went in (only apple juice until 9 am) so she was pretty excited about the crackers when she woke up from her nap at 5 pm.
Sloane will have to have one extra hearing test in a year or so (kids with skin tags on the ear have a higher incidence of hearing problems) but all signs and tests so far point to perfect hearing so we aren't too concerned. We are glad to have this in the past and it has been a great reminder of just how lucky we are to have one super healthy girl.
