Post Treatment and Doing Good
Mood:  blue

Sorry, I have been unable to access the site to leave updates.  Cassidy's treatment went well.  She again had problems after the anesethsia.  However, she was able to leave recovery and go back to the hotel after 4 hours.  She spent the day sleeping and heaving, but is doing great today.  It is hard to tie that girl down.  She is not complaining about anything , other than wanting to eat more than soft foods.  It has been a tremendous help and a joy to Cassidy, having my mom with us!

  Thank you everyone for your prayers.  We will be returning home Monday morning.

Post Treatment and Doing Good
Mood:  caffeinated

Sorry, I have been unable to access the site to leave updates.  Cassidy's treatment went well.  She again had problems after the anesethsia.  However, she was able to leave recovery and go back to the hotel after 4 hours.  She spent the day sleeping and heaving, but is doing great today.  It is hard to tie that girl down.  She is not complaining about anything , other than wanting to eat more than soft foods.  It has been a tremendous help and a joy to Cassidy, having my mom with us!

  Thank you everyone for your prayers.  We will be returning home Monday morning.

Cassidy Is Worried......
Mood:  hug me

I know everyone is wondering how Cassidy is feeling about having another treatment.  When I talk to her about going again, she gets her best pouty face (puckering out the lower lip-which won't work so well soon) and says she doesn't want to have "that medicine" again.  She is referring to the anesethsia.  She doesn't like how it makes her feel.  She is not concerned about pain or anything major, just the anesethsia & drooling.  Her pouty face quickly turned into a smile when I told her grandma will be coming with us this time.  She is sad her daddy is not coming, but very excited to have a girls trip. 

Next Trip Is Approaching Fast
Mood:  happy

Well, Cassidy's next treatment is approaching fast.  Craig will not be traveling with us this time.  He will be working hard to make some money to pay for the trip.  Thankfully my mom is going to be coming and this will be a great joy to Cassidy.  My mother is so helpful and great caring for people.  It will definately be wonderful to have her along! 

Cassidy is doing great and we can see a difference on the right side of her lip.  This actually used to be the larger side and is now the smaller side.  She is worried about having bad dreams from the anesethsia and the drooling afterwards.  If these are her worst fears then I think we are doing good.  She is supposed to start kindergarten the 21st, but I will be holding her out until her swelling has gone down. 

They are going to have a room for her in case Dr. Alomari decides to admit her.  I think this is because she took a little longer to recover from the anesethsia last time.  So it is possible they will admit her temporarily after this treatment.  I think this will be played out as it comes. 

Please continue to keep Cassidy in your prayers as she faces her second treatment on August 15th.  I hope it goes as smoothly as the first!!

Something that Craig & I are so thankful for is the great insurance we have.  We are so fortunate that Craig's insurance is nationwide and covers 100% of her treatments so far (hopefully we will not max out).  Her 1 treatment in June cost over $25,000 and who knows how many we will have to do, not to mention the surgery.  God is good!

Next Treatment Date Set
Mood:  happy

I continue to be pleasantly surprised and happy with Children's Hospital in Boston. 

When I tried to call and schedule her next treatment date (hoping for the first of August), I received some very disappointing news.  First I could not schedule her until Dr. Alomari gave them the approval and secondly they were booked out til November due to high volume season and Dr. Alomari is going on vacation.  So I sent a simple email to Dr. Alomari just to let him know I was trying to schedule her next treatment for ASAP and I could not do so until he gave scheduling the ok.  So when I called scheduling a few days later I was shocked when they told me they could get her in on August 15th.  I told her I was very pleased with that date and she informed me that Dr. Alomari had told them he wanted to get Cassidy in before he went on vacation (something I didn't even request in my email).  So once again I am extremely pleased at how smooth the process is flowing.  God sure does have a way of working things out! 

Lookin' Good
Mood:  energetic
Cassidy's lip has shown great progress and the swelling has really reduced dramatically.  She is doing great and happy to be able to do a little more activity.  I am anxious to see what's in store over the next several weeks.  I am planning our next visit to Boston for the week of August 5th.  Be sure to check out her pictures!

Home Sweet Home
Mood:  happy
Well it is good to be home.  We arrived in late Thursday and I of course ran to my family's in Peoria on Friday to get Kennedy.  We all missed her so much!  Cassidy kept telling everyone at the hospital and at our housing about her baby sister, I didn't have the heart nor did I want to admit that she is not much of a baby anymore.  Cassidy is happy to be home but misses her friends from the house in Boston.  She is still doing very good and her lip is slowly going down.  It is still hard to keep her down.

48 Hours Later
Cassidy's cheeks are a little more swollen today, and is causing her a little more pain.  We did have to give some pain meds today, but she is hanging in there.  We will all be glad when the swelling starts to subside.  Thanks to everyone that took the time to look up airfare and call us with the deals they found.  We are so thankful for such wonderful friends!

24 Hours After Sclero
Mood:  cheeky
The reason I chose cheeky as my mood, is because Cassidy is pretty much all cheeks and lip right now.  However she is doing great.  She can't eat enough and wants to be up playing.  I am having a hard time getting her to lay down and ice her mouth-I guess that is a blessing.  She did great last night, only gave her pain meds 2x and she probably would have been fine with tylenol alone, but I didn't want to take the chance.  She finally came out of the anesethsia early this morning and was upset by her swollen lip, but is dealing well with it.  It is extremely hard to eat or drink.  I have to sometimes feed her through a syringe, but she is trying the spoon.  It is rather messy.  The bed is covered in blood stained saliva and her shirt is covered along with her bear, pillow, and blanket.  With her lip so swollen she cannot keep from drooling.  Yet through all this she has MINIMAL complaints.  We are so proud of her and how she is handling all this.  God has definately prepared each of us in our own way to tackle this milestone.

Out of the hospital and resting
Mood:  chillin'

Cassidy is resting and doing great.  She is complaing very little of pain or anything else.  She is bothered by the fact that her lip is swollen 5x more and she can't close her mouth or swallow easily.  Other than that we are doing good so far.  We are resting at the Devon Nicole House (low income housing for hospital children that we were fortunate enough to get).  We are playing it by ear on returning home.  We don't want to plan something too soon for her.  The hospital was wonderful.  I cannot rave enough on the care and expertise that we recieved.  Continue to pray that she has an easy recovery!