Surgery A Success!
Mood:  happy
I am happy to say that surgery is behind us for several years.  Cassidy completed her lip reduction on June 30th and is doing great.  She has had a marked improvement in the side of the lip, especially on the inside and corners.  Be sure to check out the pictures!  She will face more treatments and surgeries in the future.  Her condition is one that will grow with her and increase in size.  You can never completely remove it.  But we are happy to say we are on a break from any treatment for probably at least a year.

Surgery in June
Cassidy has recovered wonderfully.  Her lip is noticeably much lighter in color.  The size has decreased.  She is so VERY HAPPY to be done with the treatments.  She is scheduled for some appointments in June for followups and she will be having surgery on June 30th.  She will still be facing laser therapy.  I have yet to further investigate where and what all it entails.  Thank you for all your prayers!

Last Treatment Completed With Flying Colors
Cassidy has conquered her sclerotherapy treatments.  She had no sickness and a very smooth recovery this time.  We finally perfected the anesethia on her last treatment.  Both doctors are in agreement that she is ready for surgery.  We will only face sclerotherapy treatments in the future on an as needed basis (for maintanance).  We are so excited to have this phase completed.  Although there is still more to come, we are taking one phase at a time!

Treatment #4 Already Approaching
Mood:  bright
It took me a few phone calls, but I finally got Cassidy's next treatment scheduled.  It will be here very soon.  Feb. 26th is her treatment date.  We will meet with the surgeon prior to tretment and see if he feels she will be ready for surgery after this treatment.  We are praying that she is.  It would be great if we could plan the surgery over the summer and not miss school.  I have a lot of questions about the surgery so I am looking forward to this meeting.

Home and Recovered
Cassidy is doing great and ready to go back to school.  She is going to return on the 19th.  This was an extremely fast and much easier recovery.  The swelling has gone down significantly and we are very happy with the progress.

Treatment #3 done and Cassidy is Recovering
Mood:  lucky
Cassidy did very well with this treatment.  There was very little stress prior to the treatment and she did pretty well in recovery.  The hospital is always wanting to accomodate us for the night because of her nausea, but she always wants to leave.  She had a rough night with nausea, but all in all this was the easiest recovery so far.  We had great news from her doctor.  He thinks she may be ready for surgery after one more treatment.  We will be making an appointment prior to her next treatment (in about 7 weeks), with the surgeon to get his take on this.  This however will not be the end of sclerotherapy, but will only be on an as needed basis.  Please pray that she has progressed enough for surgery!  We will be leaving tomorrow to come back home, if all is well.

Treatment #3 Quickly Approaching
Mood:  not sure
We depart for Boston in 1 week and I am feeling very overwhelmed.  Mixed emotions, stressed, worried, thankful, etc.....  Cassidy has preops on Tuesday the 6th at 7am and treatment on Wednesday the 7th, time is still to be detirmined.  We have been in close contact with her doctor who is absolutely wonderful and most helpful.  Craig will be traveling with us this time, since his vacation time has renewed-we are able to afford him to travel with us.  My mother and her twin sister have offered to come up to our place and care for Kennedy.  This is such a tremendous help and we are so thankful!

Treatment In January
Mood:  bright
Dr. Alomari has returned to the country and we have scheduled another treatment for Cassidy on January 6th.  We could have done a treatment in late December, but we did not want to ruin her holidays.  She is still doing wonderful.  We however do not know how many more treatments she will face.  We will probably have a better idea after this treatment.  Please pray that airfares will come back down.  Driving is not an option, the drive would be too long for Cassidy to handle after the treatment (not to mention the weather too unpredictable in January).  Craig and I will both be traveling with her this time.

Kindergarten
Mood:  happy
Cassidy's mouth has shrunk considerably.  She completed her first week of kindergarten with flying colors.  She has not mentioned anyone teasing her and she is excited each day to go to school.  We are so thankful that she had another fairly easy treatment with a smooth recovery.  Once again thank you for your prayers and notes!  I will post a recent picture ASAP.

Doing Great
Mood:  bright
Cassidy is doing great and once again it is hard to tie her down.  She was supposed to start her first day of kindergarten today, but it will have to wait.  Hopefully on Monday.  Her lip is healing nicely and is going down.  She is finally eating from a spoon-yipee!  Once again it is the waiting game to see the results.  There will probably be more sclerotherapy treatments in the future, but we will probably take a little break and let Cassidy adjust to school.  I am starting to look into laser treatment possibilities.  She will need laser to treat the superficial areas on her cheeks, these are too close to the surface to treat with sclero.