LeBonheur...Here We Come!

We met Ella's new doctor today in Memphis at the UT Medical Group in Germantown. His name is Dr. James C. Fleming and he treated us well. We had heard many good things about him so we were expecting the best and were not disappointed.

We started out with a little mini photo shoot with the on-staff photographer. He took many, many pictures of our little sweet pea so they could document each mark on her face and what it looked like at this point. Since last week, along with the right eye continuously getting worse, she had had more darker red marks come up on her forehead, bottom lip and chin, tip and top of her nose and on both ears. Pictures were taken of all of that.

Then the doctor came in and looked at her, but without much examination because he knew immediately that all of it was a hemangioma (no port wine stain, thank God!). He asked us if we were expecting any certain type of treatment and we told him that we had heard she might need steroid injections.

He said those were possibilities and that is what he used to start out with in the past, but there is a drug that has become "hot" in the past year to treat hemangiomas with great success. It is PROPRANOLOL and is usually given to adults to lower blood pressure. By administering this drug, they will be taking a systemic approach to reducing all of her hemangiomas, instead of using a localized approach with the steroid injections. Since she has so many, the steroid injections would have never been able to take care of them all, plus she would have been put under anesthesia to keep her completely still during the process.

Here's a little history for you: Hemangiomas usually grow and grow in children, peak at a certain point, and then start to fade. They are usually gone or faded by the time the child is 5 years old. What this means is that all of her hemangiomas are probably going to get much worse as time goes by. The PROPRANOLOL should cause the hemangioma to peak quickly and then start flatlining and/or decreasing. In some cases, they have seen a difference in one day after receiving the drug.

In order for her to receive this drug, a cardiologist has to examine her and run some tests including an EKG to make sure she can withstand the medicine. Dr. Fleming also wants to have some ultrasounds done of her liver, lungs, and other organs to make sure hemangiomas are not growing inside as well.

With all of that said, we will be admitting her to LeBonheur on Monday and will be there for 2 to 3 days. They will take her inside pictures, run the tests and then all confer on if she is okay to receive the treatment. If so, then they have to keep her there to observe her after she receives the drug to make sure she is okay.

I feel very good about this process and am very hopeful of the outcome. The doctor did examine the inside of her eyelid and I saw that her eye is not swollen like I thought it was...it is a huge red mass on the inside of her eyelid that is causing it to bulge out. I didn't think I would be able to handle looking at it, but once I saw it I couldn't look away. We asked if she was in any pain, and he didn't think so. In cases where he had older kids with this, he didn't have complaints of pain. That makes me feel better but ready to get started with the treatment!

Ella handled all of this very well, mainly because we fed her before we went in and she was very sleepy! However she did cause us some embarrassment...Lee was holding Ella and a young student doctor was sitting right in front of us looking at her and explaining something very important (I'm sure). All of a sudden, our very gassy girl lets out the loudest and longest "release of gas" (if you know what I mean) that she has ever had! She could rival any fraternity guy that wanted to challenge her! We all start laughing and Doogie looks at her and says, "That was impressive!" He stops laughing and goes on to what he was explaining. Lee and I are over here giggling like 9 year old boys and can't stop. That took the most will power I have ever had to use to stop laughing and listen to him!

So that's what we know at this time. Thanks for all the prayers...we greatly appreciate them!

In honor of Memphis playing Ole Miss this weekend, here is Ella in her

"Little Memphis Princess" outfit.

GO TIGERS!