Laser Treatment

Kara had her V-Beam Laser Treatment today at Gillette Children's in St. Paul.  It went very well (the facility is beautiful, BTW).  Except...the ride there AND back.  Kara had to be NPO from 8:30 until her procedure at 1:30 (We had to be there at 12).  I thought it wouldn't be too bad, we would feed her and then leave by 9 and she would sleep at least most of the way.  Well, she woke up by Hutch!!!  Ugh.  And proceded to cry the rest of the way there, falling asleep only just as we were in downtown St. Paul!  And then on the way home we had fed her and I thought she would still be a little sleepy from the anesthesia, well started out good, she fell asleep.  We were leaving the cities at 3:30/4 and the traffic was starting to build so it was a little slow going and then we were STARVING, we hadn't eaten since breakfast so we decided to go through a drive through in Albertville...she woke up.  We tried stopping in Monticello to feed her more and get her out of her carseat for a bit.  Didn't help.  She finally fell back to sleep about Paynsville.  Made for some rough car rides!!!

Anyway, as far as the treatment went, she did great.  We won't know if or how well it worked for a while.  Right now her hemangioma looks about the same.  Maybe even a little swollen (from all the crying or the treatment today I am not sure :)!  We go back to see the Dr. (Dr.Wood) in a month to evaluate things.  We are to call and be seen sooner if it is getting bigger.  He said it would be a success if it is smaller or even the same size since hemangiomas grow the first year of a baby's life.  And it has gotten bigger as far as the swelling goes.  So I really hope it works.  Our options are another laser treatment and/or treating it with the propranolol yet.  So. we'll see what happens.  And they do usually shrink and even sometimes disappear after the first 8-12 months of life.  So many unknowns!!!  So all the prayers are much appreciated and if you would continue to remember us every now and then, I would really appreciate it!!  Thank you everyone for your support and words of encouragement. 

And once again...I have no pics.  Jesse and I took some on our phones, however we are old school and don't have internet on our phones yet.  I am holding out yet.  And I did bring our small camera (I had enough stuff to bring and remember without also trying to bring the cannon!) BUT as luck would have it, battery was COMPLETELY dead.  And it is a rechargeable one, so we couldn't even get some batteries from them (they offered!).  Poor kiddo was so cute.