Sarah's Progress in her Battle with Hemangiomas: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Last night in NY!

Well we went to the Dr's this morning and we're told to stop by tomorrow before we leave just so he could check on Sarah's swelling. We took the girls to The Museum of Natural History this afternoon for some education and trick or treating. We stopped by the famous Magnolia bakery for a cupcake afterwords. Kim made a picture of Sarah's first trip to Dr. Waner along with this trip. It put things in perspective for me and reminded me of how far Sarah has come. I am blessed

God is good

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Surgery went well!

Surgery went well, Dr. Waner once again did a wonderful job. He took out almost all of the scaring on her cheek area and did very aggressive laser on the rest of her facial area. Kim and I usually fast with Sarah on surgery day then grab something while she is in surgery but today, because of some miss communication, we fasted until we got back to the apartment this evening, which meant tensions we're high, aka snippiness was our challenge! Sarah is resting in the bed after many glasses of Apple juice, pepperoni pizza and some cake. She has fallen in love with an app. called Cakedoodle and it has been worth all $.99. Riley became nurse Riley, so proud of her. We are all done, here are some pics, first is Sarah and I going back to surgery, next is Sarah and mommy right after surgery and last are the girls queening it up at the hotel.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

2 years since our last visit to NY

We are back in NY today. We have met with Dr. Waner and surgery is set for tomorrow. As we we're walking back to the exam room Riley said "Sarah are you scared?" Without skipping a beat Sarah said "no, I'm not scared." The strength of her makes me proud! Dr. Waner told us tomorrow he will map her face and then come out to tell us what he will be doing, can't help but have trust in him, he has done so much for her. God is good!

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SARAH's BATTLE WITH HEMANGIOMAS

We started this blog to keep our family and friends posted on our little Sarah's progress battling her Hemangiomas. Sarah was diagnosed at birth as having a port wine stain on her precious face. Port wine stains are just facial birthmarks, which the dermatologist told us would take ten years to see any kind of change or thickness on the skin.
After just a couple of weeks from seeing her dermatologist Kim noticed that the port wine stain had started to get some thickness to it and the right side of her face was beginning to get a knot underneath the skin. After a whirlwind of seeing three doctors in one day which included her primary phyisician, dermatologist, and eye doctor. We then got in contact with a different dermatologist Dr. Freeman. He confirmed to us that Sarah did infact have Hemangiomas.
Dr. Freeman put us in contact with a hematologist (a specialist with medicine and chemotherapy) his name is Dr. Mogul.
Dr. Mogul started Sarah on a steroid (prednisolone) to slow down the growth of the tumors.
Hemangioma is a Benign Tumor that grows at a rapid pace for the first twelve to fifteen months of a child’s life. After the rapid growth phase it takes approximately five to nine years for the tumor to go away totally. Hemangiomas is also predominately found in females. There is nothing the doctor’s or anyone for that matter know of that causes hemangiomas and nothing the mother or father can do to prevent them from happening.
None of the doctor’s have been able to tell us why hemangiomas happen or why they stop growing after this first year, but we do know that this type of tumor if not in a critical area can be a fairly easy thing to deal with if it happens to you. Dr. Mogul immediately put Sarah on a steroid to slow down the growth of the tumor. In mid November ourselves and the doctor’s decided to get an MRI done on Sarah’s head, neck, and torso to check the rest of her body for hemangiomas. They recommend this if you have two or more visible tumors because you run a higher risk of having these type of tumors in other parts of the body. After getting this information back to us the doctor’s found two more tumors that we were not aware of. One is behind her left eye and the other is near the left side of Sarah’s airway. It was made very clear to us that the one next to her airway was not close enough to be a threat at the time but would have to be monitored. On December 4th, approximately two weeks after the first MRI, we were encouraged to have a second MRI done for two reasons. One was to scan just the area of the neck and head to get a more detailed look at what we were dealing with the second was to give us a visual comparison from two weeks prior on the advancement of the tumors near her airway and left eye. After review from the doctor’s to our surprise the two tumors in question had not grown at all - this was good news.
My wife and I want the best treatment for Sarah and these two new tumors were just fuel to the fire on finding out more of what we could do. When Sarah was close to three months of age my wife discovered the famous Dr. Waner at the Vascular Birthmark Institute of New York. From the start Dr. Waner answered our inquiry personally and gave us his email address and phone number. This is our favorite site that for us accurately paints the picture of Dr. Waner - his Children’s Miracle Achievement Award. Be sure to visit the Waner Children's Vascular Anomaly Foundation site and Facebook Page.

After our first trip to New York to see him Grandpa Porter asked Dr. Waner "What can we do to tell others about your wonderful life's dedication to children" and he said "Start a Blog." Therefore this blog is dedicated to couples searching for help for their child with Hemangiomas!

Be sure to visit Linda Rozell-Shannon and learn about The Founder of VBF as she tells Her Personal Story. Also, Sarah's story was recently posted on the VBF site along with other family stories. A very touching story was posted May 28, 2008, on Fox News about a "Once-Disfigured Girl Attends Prom After 18 Surgeries", after being helped by Dr. Waner. You can also read and make comments at a site link .

Blogs are new to me! We are extremely grateful for the tremendous help received from Amanda at Blogger Buster. If you are interested in Blogging you will be glad that you visited her site below.

Grandpa's Family Blog