Emma's Fourth Visit to Arkansas

Emma is a trooper. This time the doctors didn't put her under because she had some conjestion in her chest. So, the treatment was very quick, easy, and painless (thanks to the numbing cream). I got to hold her hand and talk to her the whole time. When they finished I talked to the doctor for a few minutes and back home we went. These pictures were taken just minutes after the laser surgery. The part I hate now is all the worried looks I get from strangers. People can not figure out what happened to her. Out of guilt I usually tell people so they don't think I neglect my little sweetie pie or worse think I did that to her. Then they always let out a sigh of relief. The surgery was yesterday morning and she hasn't acted upset at all! Most of the bruising should go away in a week or two. We're hoping to be done for a while now. But it take a couple months before you really see the final results. It's really kinda neat how it keeps fading and fading after a treatment. I guess that's why they like to spread them out every 3 months.

I took a bunch of Christmas pictures last year. Here's a few things I captured but never shared with anyone.

This is my cute little neighbor (Tanner's best friend). And now that Emma is born, she's not the only girl in the neighborhood. Whew, what a relief for her!

And this is her brother (Josh's best friend). I'm pretty sure he's in love with Emma! And vice versa. Actually, Emma probably thinks these kids are her family too with as much time as we all spend together.

Grandpa and Grandma from Texas got the boys a Wii last year. You should have seen the excitement!
Josh quickly called his cousins, Braden and Kamron, to tell them the great news!

Much to Josh's surprise, their daddy got them one too! (What a great year!!!)

Emma got presents too. Grandma from Texas knitted her a new beautiful blanket.

Aunt Kori gave her her first jewlery box.

And Aunt Kori made her a bow holder to match her room. The two ribbons on the bottom of the "E" go down a long ways. This has given me plenty of room to clip all her pretty hair bows this past year. We even have room for a few more.(hint,hint Kori).

Emma Update

We are heading to Little Rock again this Wednesday for the 3rd laser treatment on Emma's port-wine stain on her face. My mom is coming with Emma and I this time. The 1st and 2nd treatments were so effective at lightening the appearance of her stain. We are very hopeful that it won't take the 8-10 treatments they predicted in the beginning to remove the majority of her mark. She is responding so well to the treatments. The doctors told me that not everyone responds, so I am very thankful it is working for her. The doctors are going to do another complete job where they put her under for about 10 minutes or less. They have to do this because she will be getting her upper eye lid treated and they have to insert an eye shield which would probably be impossible to do if she was awake.

Today, Emma and I went up to visit a pediatric opthalmologist. He dialated her eyes to check for any problems. Many port-wine stain patients (if their stain is over an eye) end up having internal eye problems such as glaucoma. They say this is because of the conglomeration of blood vessels and the eye not draining properly. Since it doesn't drain properly, pressure builds up in the eye, which is glaucoma. But the good news is, it is fairly simple to treat with a daily eye drop.

The doctor said her eyes look balanced except for her optic nerve. It is slightly larger than the one in her good eye. So, he's sending Emma up to the hospital to perform the eye pressure test. (I thought that's why I drove all the way up to his office today.) But apparently most doctors can't perform that test on a 13mo. old safely without putting them out for a minute with a bit of gas in a hospital.

So, my next mission tomorrow is to try to organize the eye pressure test along side the laser treatment while we're in Little Rock. Getting knocked out once is better than twice in my opinion! Little Rock Children's hospital is really awesome! So I'm very hopeful we get it all scheduled together. The people there are so SO nice, patient, helpful, and happy. It is always nice to go there, because the people really show you they care. Plus, I love driving back through Arkansas during the fall. There are so many beautiful trees! (That's were Eric and I went to college, too.)

So hopefully in 8-10 weeks we will see some more major progress on Emma's red spot. It's really interesting how after the bruising from the laser goes away, the stain itself keeps fading and fading for several more weeks until finally, you can really see a big difference!