Yet Another Successful Surgery

Been a busy spring/summer, and I'm afraid I've slipped behind a little. Nikki just had surgery #27 on July 1st, and it was another success. During a seven hour procedure, Ohio State's Dr. Miller did a lot of facial work on Nikki.

First, fat was liposuctioned from her tummy & injected around both eyes, and along her right cheek. Some of this fat is usually absorbed by the body, so this might have to be repeated multiple times in the future. The results are great, though, really filling in Nikki's facial contours & giving her face a smoother, more natural symmetry.

Then, Dr. Miller did extensive work on her nose. The nose was originally smashed almost flat in her accident in 2004, and has remained a little lopsided ever since. Several years back, another plastic surgeon took a small piece of bone from Nikki's skull & used it to build up the bridge, Over the years since, this work degraded in some fashion, and the nose was losing shape again. Dr. Miller determined that the implanted bone fragment was loose & no longer anchored properly. His goal was to determine if the bone fragment could be saved & re-anchored, or if another bone fragment would be needed- probably from her arm. He found that the fragment was fine, but the soft anchors used had detached. He repositioned the fragment & used a small metal screw to attach it to he bottom of Nikki's forehead. Next, he used a 400 micron metal sheet to build up the bridge, attaching it to the bone fragment & forehead. The nose ain't going anywhere now!

Once he was in surgery, Dr. Miller wasn't happy with how Nikki's right eye could not close properly, due to the eyelid damage from the accident. We had discussed working on this in a future procedure, but he decided he'd like to move forward with the repair now. After contacting me from the OR for approval, he proceeded to do an eyelid transplant. He harvested a small horizontal strip from her left eyelid, and attached this to the right eyelid... very fine, detailed work that took a long time.

When done, Nikki looked like she had gone ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer. Her right eyelid has been sewn shut, to protect the transplant, and both eyes have a lot of bruising, along with her right cheek. She also has a protective shield over her nose, as well as five small holes in her tummy where the fat was suctioned. Remarkably, she had little pain postop, and definitely looked worse than she felt. Nikki goes to the doctor this week, where the right eyelid will be freed up. She'll probably be off work for three weeks or so. After that, it'll be time to start planning the next procedure. Stay tuned for more!