Project time!

Elliot is painting a birdhouse today, hoping for Spring to come soon!

His spots are taking a little longer to fade than I anticipated this round. He has been back to school this week and it's not bothering him at all. :D

1 week post op, tx #16

I Elliots spots are healing pretty nicely. He does have a small scab underneath his eye area. He has seemed to be leaving it alone so hopefully it won't scar. Here's a picture of him showing you his spots! :)

And a silly pic from St Patties Day

3 days post op #16

We had a fun family day at our Aunts house for my cousins 17th birthday. Elliot enjoyed getting outside  for a while this evening when it was overcast. The worst part of all of this for him is not being able to go out and enjoy the sun on beautiful days! 

He's doing well though. He had swelling the day after the treatment but that subsided quickly. He asks me to put the Eucerin cream on a couple times per day. :)

Treatment #16!

Well, we are home from the hospital and Elliot is doing fantastic. He's a little sad that he can't go outside and play today because the weather is beautiful. Mommy is keeping him occupied inside instead. He did AMAZING once again. No pre-med (Versed) and no crankiness after....besides being a little grumpy about the nurse not taking the IV out immediately haha. Dr. Orringer consulted with me after the treatment and said that after his next blending treatment we're basically done with this first round. He thinks it looks great and we aren't really achieving further lightening *besides the blending that we've been doing* so we will take a break and just do maintenance treatments when needed. I LOVED this news, and so did Elliot. When I told him he gets a break he said "yay!" He's so amazingly strong and I just can't even express with words how proud I am of him.

After we left we went to Chipotle, like always. ;) He was wound for sound. Dancing, running and doing push ups HAHA. He then ate his kids meal and a half of my enormous burrito. This kid can pack the food away like there's no tomorrow!

I will try to be more diligent in posting healing pics this time. I've been slacking lately. On to the cute pics. :)

On our way! It was a foggy, early morning.

Blood pressure check.

Just getting in the car. Rockin' that messy 'do :)

Mommy and Elliot at Chipotle. 

Shoving his face like he's starving lol

Me and my best friend Alisha...who is always there by my side. :)

Laser treatment this week!

It's that time again! Elliot goes to the U of M on Wednesday for his 16th laser surgery. This week I've been reminiscing about all of the treatments and appointments this kid has been through and I am just AMAZED at the strength he has. I'll never forget the apprehension I had before his first treatment, and it took all of the courage I had in my body to go through with it. While it is definitely not easy at this point, I can say that I am thankful that I had the courage I did back in 2011 to begin this journey. I remember the hours upon hours of research that I put into port wine stains, laser therapy and Sturge-Weber Syndrome. Countless nights of sleep were lost. I reached out to whomever I could that was on the same journey that we were embarking upon. I met two amazing mothers who I friended on Facebook and I truly think that their journeys inspired me to find the courage necessary to go through with all of these treatments. One mother talked to me about how many treatments her daughter had went through. At that time it was around 20 treatments. I remember thinking "oh my gosh, I am not strong enough to do this for that long. That's A LOT of treatments." Well here we are, getting ready for treatment #16. There are moments when it feels like it has been a life time, and others when it I feel surprised that he has had so many treatments.

This evening I was talking to Elliot about him getting his "spots" on Wednesday. He asked if they were going to use that mask again (the one they use for anesthesia) and I told him yes. He smiled. He actually SMILED. Last time the nurse let him bring this home, and he remembers because we skipped the Versed last time. I just stared at him, looking into his big brown eyes, and was amazed at the strong little boy that we are raising. Sure he's a handful, and sure he gets on my nerves a million times a week at this age....but he is an amazing little boy and I wouldn't trade him or his birthmark for anything in the world.

I look forward to the day that he can read and browse this blog. He's been my #1 reason for all of these posts and pictures. I want him to read my thoughts and feelings one day and I want him to be able to see how strong he is.

I love you Elliot James <3


To all of our readers, thank you so much for following along on our journey. I hope that this blog has helped at least one other parent, who like me was new at this once too. I'll be back with more this week!