Anna's First Treatment

Well, we are back from Ohio and have completed Anna's first treatment at Nationw*de Children's Hospital. Anna had her first sclerotherapy treatment. I have to say, it was not as bad as I thought it would be (the actual treatment), but I know it was rough on her and you can see it in her pictures. She does not tolerate being put under very well. It took her 3 hours to really shake off the affects of anesthesia and she was like the exorcist baby until one of the nurses said to try caffeine. I'm not one to give c*ke to a child that young, but at that moment when your child is throwing herself around her hospital crib, you do what you have to do. A little relaxing music and caffeine did the trick. So, I will be better prepared next time around and make sure I have plenty of caffeine on me. You can see that she really tired herself out and crashed afterwards. She started to fall asleep while sitting up.

Anna also had a bit of a reputation and not the good kind I think among the nurses. LOL. She ripped our her IV once and tried to rip out her drainage tubes several times and even opened her drainage container a few times and had to have her bed remade. I felt bad that they could not see her true self. Everytime they walked into the room she started to freak out. She hates to have anyone wearing anything that resembles hospital garb touching her. At one point, they thought they might have to restrain her. Not something a mommy wants to hear, but thankfully she calmed down enough to where that was not necessary.

The room was very small and if you wanted to go to the bathroom, you had to close the door to the room since both the room and bathroom shared a door.

We stayed at the R*nald McDonald House and it was nice. It was across the street and very convenient. The hospital was great and I LOVE her doctor. I also got to talk to the woman who would be doing Anna's surgery once we are through with all the treatments....and we are talking probably at least 6 or 7 more times we need to go up there. Next trip is tentatively scheduled for January.

He arm is super swollen and I've been told it takes about 10 days for it to start going down. It wasn't so hard to find clothes that fit before, but now with the swelling, we are having some difficulties, but are getting by. She really does bounce back quickly and was back to her old self the day after the treatment.