Yesterday Cecilia and Kyle, volunteers at Project Why in Govindpuri, came to visit the Women's Centre. Everyone at the Centre enjoyed their visit and Meher was also excited to meet them! She spoke to them in English (How are you? I am fine? What is your name? Meher!).
Meher went back to the hospital for follow up care on Monday and Tuesday. She had her dressings changed and her left hand re-examined. She is doing fine and healing well and outside of the hospital she is is as active and lively as ever. Understandably, she does not like going back to the hospital, but now she does not need to have her dressings changed again until next week. We expect to start inserting saline into the expanders in about two weeks. Here she is at home at the Women's Centre:
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.
Please note that this is only a basic explanation based on my understanding and I am not a plastic surgeon!
On Friday afternoon, Rajesh (a teacher from the Women Centre) and I took Meher to her appointment with Dr. Khazanchi. She was very happy to come with us for a ride, especially as she was very excited and proud to be wearing a new dress that Maggie brought her from America. The picture above shows Meher and Rajesh sitting in the waiting room.
Dr. Khazanchi only needed to see us for a few minutes to measure the damaged area of Meher's scalp and forehead. These measurements will be used to ensure that the expanders (the devices that are like balloons) he puts in will be the correct size. Meher has become more used to him now and sat quietly as he examined her scalp.
Afterwards, we went to the nearby fast food restaurant for some refreshment before the ride home. Meher drank an orange Miranda soda before Rajesh took her back to Sarita Vihar. 
This is Dr. Khazanchi, the plastic surgeon who examined Meher and who is going to help us make all the arrangements for her surgeries. He is the head of the Plastic Surgery Department at a major Delhi hospital and has been incredibly kind and helpful even though his work schedule is extremely busy and demanding. He is in touch with our fund-raising team in the U.S. and is doing his utmost to help us along. After getting in touch with him, everything has become much easier as it is often difficult to make arrangements in Delhi hospitals unless you have an employee or someone from the organization helping you. We had been trying to contact different hospitals, but no one was showing the slightest interest or even answering our calls, so finding and getting in touch with Dr. Khazanchi was really amazing. He is a family friend and we are very fortunate to have him.
On Friday evening, we took Meher to see Dr. K, a plastic surgeon (and our new best friend!). He very kindly invited us into his home as he had been called away from his office and had canceled his normal consulting hours for the day. Meher came from her home in an auto-rickshaw accompanied by her mother, the head of the Women's Centre, and a teacher from the centre. I met the group at Dr. K's house and was amazed to see Meher looking nervous. The long ride and journey to an unfamiliar place was frightening for her as she is only three years old. Inside the doctor's house, she bravely tried not to cry when confronted with an unknown adult who wanted to touch and examine her face and hands. It was the first time I had ever seen Meher even slightly out of her element, and we assured the doctor that this would not last long. And we were right- she adjusted and brightened up before we left and wanted to explore her new surroundings.
