Thursday, June 23, 2011

summer vacation 2011....

Hi friends....sorry for the long absence. We were so busy with end of school year activities and Girls On the Run (Paige and I ran together a 5 K race in early June), Piano lessons for Paige and all the other spring things the girls are involved in. Oh yeah and I work two 12 hour days a week so that keep me busy and Jeff too. But I am blessed with a great job and love being a nurse. We love Northern Michigan area and spend time here each summer. Here are some recent pictures of our trip. We make so many memories and have fun too.


Friday, June 10, 2011

Strawberry Hemangioma

Laine Age 5 1/2 Hemangioma.....gone
Now for the beginning of the story

Many people have asked us about Laine's Strawberry Hemangioma. I would welcome any questions by families whose child has been born with one of these tumors. She had nothing more than very slight redness at birth. Even at one week old we were told it was a stork bite and would go away in a few weeks or months. Each day it got bigger, redder and the next morning I would see a change over night.




Laine at one month It grew fast the first months and we were referred to a Pediatric Dermatologist, Ophthalmologist and Hematologist. Laines tumor was considered Cavernous because it also invaded her eye cavity and was pushing on her eye changing its shape. We were seen every 2-3 months by the Ophthalmologist to make sure she didn't loss eye function. The Dermatologist wanted us to wait as most of these will go away on their own. It was hard to see her like that and not demand something be done but we trusted our doctors.


Laine at 2 months



We got many stares but that didn't stop us from going places. At story time every week I would end up feeling bad for the mommies whose child pointed at Laine and would ask if she had play dough or a pepperoni on her eye. Other mommies felt terrible about what their child was saying. My older daughter who was 4 years old would tell. me "mom people are staring at my sister" I think she has a gift of compassion because of it now. The comments from little ones didn't bother me. I would just tell them it was a birthmark. The rude comments from adults were the worst. I actually had adults say "what is wrong with your baby" Almost like they were disgusted from looking at her.






Laine at 8 months it keep growing









Laine at 9 months it peaked in the growth and stayed the same for a couple months
















Laine at 1 year We saw signs of it getting smaller and less red. We were so excited.


Laine now at 3 years old. As the Hemangioma has healed her eye shape is back closer to normal. She will not need glasses at this time. She has a little bit of skin puckering that maybe someday we could have laser surgery. Her doctors are very happy with all the progress. She looks at pictures of when she was a baby and asks about the boo boo on her eye. When we ask her what happened she says "Jesus healed it". For that we are so thankful.