You Are Already Beautiful
Parry Romberg Syndrome and Me
My story by Cheryl Rick Klein
I am so happy the Romberg Connection support group posted a page about a surgeon I reffered many "romberger's" to for Facial reconstructive surgery. I first mentioned John Siebert's name when I learned so many people that suffer Parry Romberg Syndrome could not find or choose a reptuable Plastic surgeon. Dr. Seibert was one of about three plastic surgeons that was experienced and compassionate enough to offer procedures, especially the Vascular Flap transplant, which uses your own doner skin, muscle, and fat from a part of your body, in my case he choose my right upper back where my bra strap could cover up most the scar it left. Then he would attach by micro-surgery the newly harvested skin over the "wasted facial" area and attach blood vessels and arteries to mesh the old face with the new doner skin.
Not a pretty picture. I had bolts like Frankenstein holding my face together that scared the crap out of my young children. I had complications part of my new flap died.I had to have another surgery to fix this.
It took over a year for the swelling on my right side to go completely away. To top it off my husband had a affair.
It took a while to heal but was it worth it? My mom who lived to see me diagnosed in 2001, gave me 40,000 dollars and insisted I do the procedure. She was more excited than me but when she saw me in the hospital she commented I looked like I jumped out of a 24th floor skyscrapper.
My mom a year later told me a year later how beautiful I was. She never said those words to me except on my Wedding Day. The first one.LOL.
My dad passed away in 2000 he never knew I was diagnosed one year later.
