Skin tag removal on our baby

Several times a month, I receive emails from parents all over the world about Grant's skin tags. The internet can be such a great thing, as it as enabled me to connect with other parents who are experiencing the same thing we have with Grant. 

So Grant was born with 5 skin tags on his face and ears. His skin tags are due to him having Goldenhar Syndrome. Skin tags can be indicative of hearing loss/deafness and/or kidney problems. He is not deaf, but we do have to re-test for hearing loss. He had a VCUG at 3 months to determine if he has reflux when he urinates-he did not! We do have to redo the VCUG again next week. Pray for no reflux!

Two very loosely attached tags were on one ear, he had a very attached tag on his cheek and other ear, and a loosely attached tag on his other cheek.

At 2 days shy of 3 months old, a plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital removed all 5 skin tags from Grant's face. It was fairly noninvasive (the ear tag that was attached took a bit more time and effort, and the surgeon had to be more careful to remove the very attached tag on his cheek to avoid much scarring). 

The recovery was great and the stitches were out in about 2 weeks. Although he was still our same sweet baby, he looked much different to us 1 week post-op!

And now, here we are almost 5 months later, and our sweet boy's face is still healing. There is significant scar tissue on one of his ears, and we just started scar tissue massage this week (per our Craniofacial Ped's instructions).

I snapped these after lunch today and so you'll have to excuse the sweet potatoes that are ALL over his face! :)

If you found this post via google or google images, you can check out the rest of my skin tag posts by clicking here.

If you have any questions, you can email me at

mtrochelman@gmail.com

I promise I will get back to you as soon as possible!

Grant-1 week post-op

Grant is doing great and his face is healing! Three of the skin tags are almost completely healed...the base of the tags were so small that they only needed 1 stitch each. The other two are still in the process, but are coming along! One tag needed 3 stitches...it's a little red so I"m keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get infected. The one tag that was really attached on his ear still has the liquid stitches (along with the traditional stitches), so I can't really tell what it looks like yet.

one week post-op:

grant's surgery and "new" look

sweet boy's surgery was today and it went great!

because of his age, they put him under general anesthesia (which includes a breathing tube). the anesthesiologist told me that because of Grant having Goldenhar, his throat is smaller then it is suppose to be and she may have trouble getting the tube in. it turns out she did in fact have to make several attempts before she was successful, but otherwise everything went great! 

he had all 5 removed...it is SO strange seeing him without the tags...

obviously there are several stitches, but here is what little man looks like now!

now that the tags are gone, you can see his dimple in his cheek-which, may i add, is melt-my-heart worthy. 

i JUST got done filling out his paperwork for the full evaluation from the craniofacial team, so we'll (hopefully) have an appointment soon!

the last picture

this is the last picture i'll (probably) ever post of Grant with his skin tags.

the skin tag removal surgery is this monday. i'm still waiting on the time, but i would assume it will be first thing in the morning (babies go first). i'm not excited about it, but i do want it to hurry up and come so we can get it over with. i HATE that he has to go through this. i hate that he STILL eats every 2 hours (except for at night) and cannot eat for 6 hours prior to surgery. i hate that this will be the first of many surgeries for him. i hate that i JUST noticed which side of his face is deformed (the picture above makes it pretty obvious), and that he'll have to have corrective surgery for years to come. it sucks. big time. even so, we are putting our trust in God. because really, that's all we can do. 

finally some answers- Goldenhar Syndrome

i'm running on about 5 hours of sleep so i'm going to make this short.

we had grant's plastic surgery appointment today in chapel hill. 

after Dr. Gage took a look at his skin tags, he asked if there was anything else going on with him...i told him he was otherwise healthy, but that he had these lesions on his eyes. as soon as Dr. Gage saw them he referred to them as "limbal dermoids." He then checked Grant's ears and mentioned that one of his ear canals was incredibly narrow (which i have noticed already). After this, he checked out his mouth and saw his uvula was split (bifid uvula). 

So what does all this mean?

Grant has a condition known as Goldenhar Syndrome. 

he doesn't appear to have the facial disfigurement that is associated with it, but we really won't know more until we meet with a team of doctors in the craniolfacial department. they will check his entire ear/nose/throat anatomy and determine treatment. 

his skin tag removal surgery (it's a bit more in-depth then i anticipated) will be May 21. the craniolfacial appointment will probably be in a few months where he will be fully evaluated.

its been an exhausting day, so that's all i have for now.

please pray continuously for this sweet baby.

Quick Appointment(s) Update!

just wanted to give a quick update on the appointments going on this week!

Grant has 3 appointments this week...today we had our well child 2 month check-up (we are already a bit behind..go figure). it went great, with the exception of the slew of immunizations. 

grant now weighs 12 lbs, 8 oz. and is 23 1/2 in. long. he's growing! 

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on wednesday we have to go to chapel hill for the initial consultation with plastics. we are using the same plastic surgeon we used with harper which is AWESOME because we really liked Dr. Gage. 

more then likely, they'll just take a look at the skin tags on his face and determine when the best time would be to remove them (either sooner or later). 

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i have been SO worried about the spots on grant's eyes and his ped and i decided that instead of waiting for the July appointment with the local pediatric ophthalmologist, we would try to see if they could see us in at chapel hill sooner. surprisingly, they were able to get us in this friday! i'm super nervous about it, but know that regardless of what they say, it will all happen according to God's will. 

here's a grainy picture of what is on the bottom of BOTH of his eyes. 

prayers for both appointments are greatly welcomed, specifically for the ophthalmology appointment. we will continue to let everyone know whats going on when we know more! 

newborn skin tags

my baby grant was born with 5 skin tags on his face/ears. 

they are quite large, but from what we know, are not harmful in any way. 

i honestly don't notice them much anymore on a day to day basis....until someone mentions them.

like when a stranger comes up to admire my newborn baby...they are all smiles until their eyes fixate on the tags. sometimes i fumble out a few explanatory sentences about them, sometimes i say nothing, leaving an awkward silence in the air.

or when a curious toddler wanders up and touches them, asking what they are. 

those instances really don't bother me much....but i hate that instead of seeing his cute dimple in his chin or the rolls that lie beneath, people just see the tags.

i hope anyone reading this does not think i'm a ashamed or just concerned with his outward appearance -i KNOW it just a vanity thing...but its a vanity thing on MY son, and sometimes its hard. 

anytime i take pictures of grant, i do become aware of them-i post a lot of pictures on facebook because a great deal of our families live in Texas (mine) and Ohio (Kanes) and FB is one of the few ways they can stay connected with us...but that also means that the other people who occupy your friends list on FB see them...you know, the people you know, but don't really know? that kid that was in your 9th grade English class? or some random sibling of a long lost friend? yeah, those folks. they see pictures of my baby, in all of his vulnerability. and i become defensive. sometimes i take pictures of my sweet boy while casually concealing the tags. laying him on his side, cropping, raising his shirt or bib up a bit to hide what he was born with. 

i know, i know. i sound really bad right now.

i'm crazy, right? 

it makes no sense, yet at the exact same time, it makes perfect sense. 

in a few months time, they will be removed, and this will all be a thing of a past. but until then, it is something i am dealing with..."i" because grant has no idea (obviously), they don't bother kane in the least (pssh..men), and the boys think they are "cool."

sigh...

just wanted lay that out here.

PS-i've googled "newborn skin tags" hundreds of times in the 7 weeks Grant has been born...if anyone out there happens to stumble across this post who is dealing with the same thing, feel free to shoot me an email...google images is a scary thing!: mtrochelman@gmail.com

**UPDATE**

You can view a more recent update about Grant's skin tags by clicking here!

Grant is 1 month old!

this past friday marked Grant being 1 month old! 

he had an appointment today and is doing great!

he weighs 9 lbs 12 oz and is 22 in long

(he was born 7 lbs 10 oz and 20 in long).

he's growing!

he has his Urology testing April 9, Ophthalmologist appointment in July (seriously..in all of Wilmington there is only ONE pediatric ophthalmologist), and we are waiting for the referral for his appointment with plastics. as far as his plastic surgery goes (for the removal of the skin tags) we are going to have to go back to chapel hill. because we are already established with the plastics department in CH (because of harper's hemangiomas/vascular malformations) they want to send us back AND because they are on his face they want to make sure the "best of the best" removes them to avoid much scarring. 

and now...the pictures:

and next up: my journey with the 30 Day Shred!

grant: health update

quick preface:

i hate being so "public" with grant's issues, but it is SO much easier to explain it once on here instead of having to explain it thousands of times in person.

where to begin?

grant was born with skin tags on his face and ears. he has five altogether: two in one ear, one on each cheek and one in his other ear. skin tags are not dangerous and are common in newborns. at this point, they are simply a vanity issue, but will removed sometime in the next several months. however, (because there is always a "however" with us) the skin tags seemed suspicious to the doctors because they are symmetrical on his face...they are in this perfect line from his ears down to his chin. now this is where i might lose some of you :)  during pregnancy, the ear/nose/throat anatomy is formed around the same week that the kidneys/renal system are being formed. sometimes with infants if there is something wrong with the kidney/urinary tract, it will "show" itself in form of skin tags. 

we had an ultrasound at the hospital when he was born and they initially told us that everything looked fine. however, at his newborn checkup we were told that there was some "stretching" in his kidneys and that there could be some problems...we went to the urologist this past week and they said he could (or could not) have an extra set of tubes in his urethra. we go next month for a test that will determine if when he urinates, if there is any backflow...regardless if there is a duplication of tubes, if there is no backflow, we are in the clear. if there is backflow of urine, then the tubes will have to be removed.

okay...and lastly...

there are very FEW people who know about this...mainly because we don't know what it is and cannot give it a name. when grant was born i noticed he had white "gunk" on the bottom of both eyes. i asked the nurse and she said it was just eye gunk/"sleep." i knew that wasn't what it was, but figured it would go away....it didn't. we asked his doc at his appointment the other day and he basically had no idea what it was either. i've googled everything under the sun and cannot find any information on it. we have an appointment with an opthamologist soon....

the "white spot" is on both of his eyes...on the bottom of each iris. you cannot see it when looking at him unless he looks up in the sky or if you actually pull his bottom eyelid down. i'm not going to post pics of it but i did my best to draw a picture of what i'm talking about just to give you an idea:

so thats what going on...

i'm not going to lie...i was completely taken off guard by all of this. i had an event-free pregnancy and his ultrasounds always looked good. 

after all of the appointments/trips to and from chapel hill/pre-ops/post-ops/surgeries with harper...my heart sank when i realized that this was all going on with grant. aside from the stress of it all, i dread having to watch grant get poked and prodded at like harp had to. but it is what it is and we'll have to deal with one step at a time. 

aside from all that, grant is doing great! he is SUCH a good, easy baby. he eats well, he sleeps great at night, and has such an easy-going personality. he is everyone's favorite person in the house right now! :)

we'll continue to keep everyone posted once we know more.