I'm Sure There is One, but if Not, I'm Starting a Dr Habal Fan Club

When Gigi was about two weeks old I started to notice a little bump on her forehead.  It kind of looked like a zit, but it grew and at her two month check up, I asked the doctor and she said it was a cyst that would be removed at some time.

Here she is at her first bath.  You can start to see it here.  You can click on the picture to make it larger.

Here she is at two months.

At her four month check up, it had grown a bit bigger and her doctor said that we probably wouldn't go to dermatology anymore, but plastic surgery.  Here she is at four months.

When she was in the hospital for her cold, I talked with the pediatrician there and he said that usually they don't take those off until they were a year old.

Since we're moving to Japan and there is not a military hospital there or any specialists, I really wanted to look into getting this taken care of before we left.  Today was our plastic surgeon consult.  Here's a picture of her from this weekend, at the Renaissance Faire.

We walked into an old medical office in North Tampa and waited about an hour and a half to see Dr. Habal.  I had not researched Dr. Habal, but went to him on the recommendation of our pediatrician.  While waiting I looked at a pamphlet that had a list of specialists for pediatrics and he was the only plastic surgeon.  There was also lots of literature on cleft palates around.  A few breast augmentation signs, but the specialty was clearly children.

When we were taken back by Dr. Habal, we had the chance to read several articles about Dr. Habal in the hallways while we were waiting for him to come to our room.  We were in AWE.  He has done several absolutely amazing surgeries on children, changing their lives, and waiving his fees.  He is world renowned and one of the Top Plastic Surgeons in the Country.  One story struck me so much.  It was in an editorial by the Tampa Tribune (regretfully I can't find it) about a case he took of a boy in Mexico who had been kept cloistered because of his severe deformity.  Gaping hole in his head which showed his protruding brain, eyes on the side of his head.  The 18 hour surgery completely reconstructed his head and face and changed his life.

Mick and I sheepishly said that we felt bad for being there since Gigi's cyst was thankfully, so small.

He walked in and said, "Well, I know why you're here" with a smile on his face.  I told him how honored we were to have him as our daughter's doctor and that we would be moving to Japan so we were wondering if he thought we could take care of it before mid-June.  He said, "We'll take care of it next week!"  (Actually, the surgery has been scheduled for April 22nd.)

He told me on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most difficult thing he does, Gigi's surgery is a minus 10!  :)  He did not say this in a dismissive manner, but a reassuring one.  And how wonderful that was to hear!!!!!!  And then he told me that this type of cyst is 99.99% BENIGN!  (Is there a lovelier word in English language?)

It will be an overnight stay at the Children's Hospital where she was for four days in February.  He said that the stitches will dissolve in about a week and then he'll give us a cream to put on it and he wants us to send him an e-mail with a picture of her that will show "just a faint white line" as the scar in one year.  :)  He also said it's a good thing that we are doing it now because we won't have to worry about her breaking the wound open while she is learning to move about. 

My motto is "It's nothing until it's something" so I was trying to not freak out about this before I knew what it entailed, but I felt like I floated out of his office.  The weight of this was on my shoulders, heavier than I realized.  I am so very grateful that we were led to this doctor and so very grateful that it will be taken care of soon and so very grateful that it will be behind us and her. 

HOORAY for Dr. Habal and if I find those articles, I will post them.  Here's his resume. 

Dr. Habal's resume

Thank you Lord for our baby Gigi!!!!!!