Step by step through Caleb's treatments

I wanted to document step by step what Caleb goes through each month when we go get his treatments.

First we get up at the crack of dawn (6am) to leave to drive an hour up to Primary Childrens Hospital. I should really be thankful (and I am) that we are so close. Other families travel from out of state every time their kid needs a sclerotherapy treatment so we really do have it easy.

We get to the hospital and walk by the fountains. He really wanted a picture here.

We wait in the waiting room for a while and then they call us back to another waiting room. Here they check his vitals.

He also gets to watch a movie. We have waited in this room for three hours before. Luckily this time it was only about an hour.

This is how we sit as he gets his IV. He hangs his hands over my shoulders and closes his eyes. He doesn't even flinch when he gets his IV. He actually looks forward to it, the crazy kid.

Look how happy he is to have his IV in. That means he gets to choose from the prize basket which I forgot to get a picture of.

Now we wait some more. When it is his turn they give him some "loopy" medicine so he isn't scared of going into the treatment room. This medicine (Versed) makes him kind of out of it and tired but it isn't the sedation.

They wheel us both into the treatment room, me holding him. Here is where they put the sedation drug in his IV. Within 30 seconds he is out. They transfer him to the treatment table.

And hook him up to the machines.

Then I leave and go hang out for about 30-45 minutes while they do the sclerotherapy. They basically give him one big shot right in his lip. It is a scarring agent, actually one of the ingredients in chemotherapy. They hope is that it will attack all of his tissue and create some scar tissue thereby shrinking the size of his lip.

Here is after the treatment when he is waking up.


He is always sick for the rest of the day of his treatment due to the injection medication.

He usually barfs the whole way home. But then he wakes up the next day like nothing every happened!

This first picture is before we started treatments:

And this one is after two treatments before the third:


The difference is small but I can definately see it. Look at the height and fullness of his upper left lip. Three treatments down! I'm not really sure how many are left but hopefully we are all done by the end of the year!

Preschool Graduation

Last week was Brynley's preschool graduation. I cannot believe that she is as hold as she is. It is crazy to me. Doesn't she look so old and adorable?!


They sang a bunch of cute songs and then they got their diplomas. Mrs Suzan gave each kid an award. Brynley's was "Little Miss Creative Dresser" and then she went on to talk about all the different things Brynley would wear to school. It was so funny. I was talking to Mrs Suzan afterwards and I said, "That just means her mom is too lazy to make her wear normal clothes!" and she said, "No, I really think it says a lot about her personality and individuality." HA! Yes, Brynley is one of a kind. :-)

She is so excited to go to Kindergarten. She will be young like Caleb but she is already such a good reader and is very ready to start next year. She thinks she is starting very soon. Maybe next week. I don't think she understands that she has to wait until summer is over. She keeps saying, "I will be in Kindergarten after preschool" and I say, "After the summertime" and she says, "No, after preschool." You learn to just smile and nod with her.

We love you Brynley and are so excited for all the adventures you are going to have next year!

Hiking the Y

Last night we hiked the Y. Or we tried to, I should say. We put Aubrey in the hiking back pack and she freaked. Screamed, wiggled and tried to climb out. We tried to just keep going in hopes that she'd get over it, but she didn't. Around the first switch back we got her out thinking we'd just take turns holding her. But what 20 month old wants to be held when they're in a new place? Not ours. She wanted to walk. And that, as you can imagine, didn't go so well. She and I never made it past that first switch back. We looked at rocks and gave them hugs and kisses while we waited for Daddy, Caleb and Brynley to hike up and back. We walked around holding hands and she kept saying "big steps" and "air's bini (becab/daddy)" for "where's Brynley". It was pretty cute. Unfortunately, I had the camera so I don't have any pictures of the kids at the top. So we'll have to settle for these.



Cute sister moment for ya:

Random Pictures

Here are just a few pictures I've taken lately. Just us being ... us. :-)





These last ones are at Brynley's Mother's Day Program. It was so cute. They sang songs and we planted flowers and had a treat.




In basement news, it is pretty much finished! There are just a few little odds and ends to be done but that's it! Caleb is officially moved downstairs like a big boy! Pictures to come next week.