This is a tissue expander. Yesterday, three tissue expanders were inserted under Meher's healthy skin and scalp tissue. They will slowly be filled with saline (she will start going to Dr. Khazanchi's clinic twice a week for the saline to be injected into the expanders once she is healed) so her healthy tissue will expand and eventually (in about 2-3 months) she will have another operation to remove the damanged tissue and replace it with healthy skin and scalp tissue. This is a picture of a child who went through the same procedure to remove a hairy nexus from his face:
When the expanders become full, they are quite large and unusual looking, so today I am meeting with the staff at the Women's Centre to show them pictures and make sure they understand the procedure. They in turn will pass this information on to their students, so Meher will have lots of support from her friends and teachers. As the expansion is gradual, it will not be painful. The inspiration for expanding healthy tissue this way actually came from pregnancy.Here is another example of the same procedure used to restore hair after a burn:
Please note that this is only a basic explanation based on my understanding and I am not a plastic surgeon!
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