A rare exception, a personal post on an otherwise non-personal blog.
This is our beautiful daughter Damini…..
Damini turned five yesterday, Sept 6th. Tomorrow she goes for the third major surgery of her young life. She was born with a congenital nevi that covered most of her right forehead area through to her eye lid. She has had two surgeries and a skin graft to remove the nevi over the course of the last 18 months. Thanks to those we don’t have to worry about any life threatening impacts from the nevi.
My little Damini is the bravest person I know. Amazingly she never complains about pain after her surgeries and never cries, even though stitches cover most of her forehead area and recovery is tough. Her strength and resilience is a source of deep inspiration for me. She is also the source of the passion I have for work, life, and beyond.
As a human and father dealing with this on behalf of my daughter is the hardest thing I have done in my life. I only wish that I could be as resilient as she is in dealing with all this.
I’ll be off the blog for the next week.
September 7th, 2006 at 06:32
Best wishes to you both and I'll pray for a speedy recovery.
September 7th, 2006 at 07:04
What a total sweetie!
September 7th, 2006 at 08:10
What a beautiful girl! Best wishes for her surgery and recovery.
September 7th, 2006 at 08:53
Your daughter is very beautiful and I wish her the speediest of recoveries.
September 7th, 2006 at 10:26
I wish her a speedy recovery!
September 7th, 2006 at 13:44
You are lucky to have each other. Hardships make you grow stronger. Sounds like the both of you have your hearts at the right place. You seem to be an exceptional family.
September 7th, 2006 at 20:35
Wow! I wish the best for Damini's surgery – our thoughts are with you.
September 7th, 2006 at 20:48
Having a daughter just slightly younger than Damini I was touched by your post today. I shared your daughter's story with my wife and we both wish you, your wife and daughter all the best in the coming days. Our thoughts are with you all.
September 8th, 2006 at 00:08
Avinash,
I wish your daughter – and you and your family – all the best and a speedy recovery.
Best Wishes,
Daniel
September 8th, 2006 at 10:05
What a lovely little girl. You are all in my thoughts at this difficult time.
September 8th, 2006 at 11:37
Best wishes from me, my wife and 2 sons.
September 8th, 2006 at 13:01
all the best to her, you and the whole Family, sincerely…Laurent, the Father of two kids… so I relate completely, your friend, Laurent
September 8th, 2006 at 17:40
Happy 5th birthday Damini! I am thinking about you and I wish you a speedy recovery. Tell daddy to bring you to office for Halloween candies! Avinash, we are all lucky to learn from Damini.
September 9th, 2006 at 00:38
Thank you all for your kind words. Damini's surgery went well according to her doctor and we are relieved to have her home.
Even in tough moments one finds gems. Today one such gem is all your comments and emails with encouragement for Damini. The other is a picture I took of Damini today trying to watch TV with her left eye that is barely open (since her face is quite swollen). As her father It is hard to watch her yet her effort brings a smile.
We are very grateful to Dr. Stephen Schendel, Chief of Pediatric Plastic Surgery, and the wonderful staff at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. Their support and care is exlemplary.
Thank you all once again (once Damini feels better I will tell her of all the places in the world from which people wrote to her).
September 9th, 2006 at 04:07
Damini, Avinash and family. Glad and relieved to hear the operation went well!
We went thru a similar experience with our little man (now 3.5) when he was 9 months. Surgery for a cleft-palette.
All in all, I think he coped better than we did. :-)
I fully understand and sympathise with what you've gone thru. Just remember these feelings for when she's a rebellious teenager. :-P
September 11th, 2006 at 07:38
I have a 5 year old daughter too .. aren't they amazing!? I am glad to hear all went well.
September 15th, 2006 at 08:46
I am an Analyst at American Greetings and read your blog on web analytics.
Hope your daughters surgery went well.
Raghav
September 18th, 2006 at 15:01
Hi Avinash,
I missed this post when you originally posted it and I'm so glad to hear that your beautiful daughter's surgery went well. I can only imagine how hard it must be to see your little one in pain… they are so strong and flexible and she sounds very brave. Just another thing that we can learn from our children. Congratulations!
Gradiva
December 14th, 2006 at 08:09
Hi Avinash,
Glad to know things are fine now with Damini. I love the name Damini and hope she brings lots of joy in your life.
Regards.
March 3rd, 2007 at 22:00
You and Damini inspire more people than you can imagine. Me and everyone else who read this post would've sent our wishes for Damini's recovery … and strength for you and your wife.
Stay well,
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:09
I have Multiple Congenital Nevi. I stumbled on this page and just wanted to say that I have an almost identical scar on my right forehead from a large nevus removal. I never met anyone like me who had been through anything similar. I'm glad to hear she is doing well. my heart goes out to her.
July 7th, 2007 at 11:05
My daughter was also born with congenital melanocytic nevi. We havent started the operations yet but it's somthing i've been dredding. I do wish the absolute best for your daughter, she's lovely.
Kindest Regards,
Mat
March 27th, 2008 at 00:41
get well soon.
love from
anukriti & damini
January 6th, 2009 at 14:02
Avinash,
Hope your daugther is doing ok now. How is she doing now ? I can relate to how you feel.
I just had a son 4 weeks back and he was born with a similar birthmark all over his left cheeck and upper lip. Doctors said its just a birthmark and there is nothing to be worried about. But as a parent, this is the only thing that's in my mind every minute.
Found your site when I was trying to find more on pigmented Nevi (that's what the doctor mentioned my son has).
Did Damini have the mark when she was born ? When did you start the surgeries on her ?
Thanks and god bless Damini..