Hemangioma Excision

January 28-29, 2008---We went to Children's Hospital in Little Rock for another hemangioma treatment. Chloe had an office visit on Monday afternoon. Rick and I had noticed that over the past week Chloe's facial atrophy didn't seem as obvious as usual. (She was having a reaction to the steroid used previously to shrink the hemangioma. The steroids had eaten away some of the fat in her face, causing very noticeable indentations and lines in her face--called atrophy.) We had sent Dr. Buckmiller pictures and imagine her surprise when she came in our room and saw Chloe's face. She said there was no medical reason for the atrophy to have spread up her forehead and down her cheek, and there was no medical explanation for it to have healed itself. Dr. Buckmiller has been amazed with Chloe's recovery from the beginning. She has had no other patients who have had such drastic changes in their hemangiomas. She expected to have to do several steroid treatments on Chloe, but only had to do one because the protruding part of the hemangioma had shrank completely. The color in the hemangioma was significantly different after both of her laser treatments. We all know it was a miracle that her face had healed itself----it was God answering everyone's prayers! Dr. Buckmiller was speechless. She and her associates are considering writing up Chloe's case and sending it to a medical journal. Chloe thought she was such a big girl holding/loving her baby in the chair in the exam room.





Her surgery wasn't until 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, which meant a long time between meals. We stuffed her at dinner and she had a late bottle. No food or drink after midnight. She was allowed to have water or apple juice until 10:30 a.m. but, like my two other children, Chloe dislikes both. Needless to say, she was starving (or thought she was) by 9 a.m.--she had already missed her breakfast and morning snack. She was miserable at the hotel. After arriving at the hospital at 11:30 a.m. we tried to keep her mind off the hunger pains by having her play in the waiting room and playroom. She bored with it rather quickly.







However, she was in meltdown mode by noon. Now she had missed her lunch too and was just miserable. The anesthesiologist gave her "goofy juice" at 12:45. This was supposed to make her goofy (obviously, given its name) but we didn't see much difference. She did fall over once and thought playing with tissue was the best game ever. I guess you don't see a lot of reaction from an 11 month old. The medicine was also supposed to make her separation from us less traumatic. She was upset when we left her but I'm sure it wasn't as bad as it would have been without the "juice". The medicine has an amnesia inducing drug in it so she won't remember anything from the time she took it until after we got home. The amnesia aids in reducing the fear of surgery if a child must return for additional treatments.





It took over an hour and a half to do the surgery. Dr. Buckmiller was able to cut out the scar under her skin and rearrange the bulges to fill in the remaining indentations. She also cut away the saggy, scarred skin., which lifted the nose a little. My baby had her first cosmetic procedure! Dr. Buckmiller thought she would have to do a laser treatment on the remaining red areas. This was not necessary because they were minimal after the eye tuck. Chloe was in recovery for almost two hours. We were allowed to be with her for most of that time. She was in a lot of pain and was given two doses of morphine within a 15 minute period. She was also starving and was refusing the apple juice being offered. She drank a little sprite but was very excited to see a bottle of milk. (The milk and sprite didn't stay down for very long---it was a nasty van ride home!! She has never gotten sick from the anesthesia before so I am blaming the "goofy juice".) She is still in a lot of pain and is taking Tylenol w/Codeine every four hours. The pain and discomfort should ease by this afternoon or tomorrow. We must also clean the stitches area with a peroxide/water mixture and put an ointment on them three times a day. She's not going to like that! In order to keep her from touching her stitches, the hospital put "no-no's" on her arms. They prevent her from bending her elbows. They can only be taken off at bath time and when changing her clothes. This means she can't feed herself, hold her bottle, or play with toys. You know she hates them!! It's going to be a very interesting week!







Her eye is very swollen and discolored. She looks as if she was in a backyard brawl and had the crud beat out of her. All of this will heal with time. The few remaining hemangioma red spots could go away on their own over the next year. If not, she will have laser treatments on them. That being said, this could be the last major surgery she will have to go through for her hemangioma. However, we do go back to Little Rock on Tuesday, February 5th to have her external stitches removed. She must be put to sleep to do this so we will once again experience the "goofy juice". I will be prepared for its after effects and pack towels and febreeze in the van!!