WE'RE BACK!!!

OKAY we're back home thank heavens... I'm sooooo tired. Yesterday was a long day. My Mother-in-law went with me to Portland so that Joe and his dad could finish their projects and we took Olivia so that Joe would just have to worry about Lane and Emma was so good to keep an eye on Lane and keep him entertained.

We got to Doernbechers at 6:18 am. We didn't have any trouble with traffic which was good.

They got Eliza swabbed up with some numbing cream for the IV and then we had to wait for it to take effect until around 7:45 am when they took us back and started to look for her vein. The lady who put the numbing cream on Eliza wouldn't listen to me when I tried to tell her that we've always had good luck with putting the IV on the back of her had. So she only put the cream on her right arm and her two feet. The nurse said that she didn't want to irritate Eliza rash (which eczema -not sure how to spell that-). So when we got to the back the nurse Lisa who was AWESOME started looking for a vein couldn't find one so I told her what I told the other nurse and she looked at Eliza's hands and said, "You're right these look much better, I can't even find any veins on her arm or feet." HUMMMMM isn't there something to be said about listening to the MOTHER cause they know their child, especially since we've done this so many times. So poor Eliza got the IV put in without the numbing cream. Any way so I held Eliza against me while one nurse held Eliza at the elbow and Lisa put the IV in. She got it the first time and it went in perfect. Couldn't have asked for anything better. Eliza cried a little bit and even made Grandma drop a couple of tears.

The other nurse that was there told Eliza she did such a great job that she was gong to give her a unicorn. Eliza's eye lit up as the nurse brought her a beanie baby unicorn. She held onto it the whole time until it was time to get the MRI. After the IV was put in and ready we went from floor 5 to floor 4 of the hospital where they would be doing the MRI. The anesthesiologist got Eliza's medication ready and started putting it in her IV and Eliza fought going to sleep for a long time. She'd start to droop her eyes and they open them right back up and did that several times and then once she was laying down and appeared to be asleep she's kick her legs and move her arms still fighting it. I don't like that part whatsoever especially when her eyes roll back and then she goes under! It's the worst part for me. Well an hour later she came back up to the 5 th floor where we were waiting. She didn't want to wake up it probably took us 10 minutes just to get her to open her eyes and the nurse was rubbing her back and putting her cold hands on her trying to wake her up but she didn't want to wake up AT ALL. Finally the nurse sat her up and she tried to lay back down it was pretty funny. Poor baby was SOOOOO tired. Of course her getting up at 3:00 am didn't help any. Before we could leave she needed to show that she could eat and drink so I asked her if she wanted some apple juice and she nodded her head but she still hadn't opened her eyes yet so I put the straw in her mouth and she drank the whole 4 oz cup in one drink piratically. It was gone in no time. Then I asked her if she wanted a cracker and she did. So I gave her one and she took a bite without opening her eyes. She was so funny. Drinking and eating with her eyes closed. I had her unicorn and asked her if she wanted it and she just put out her hand (eyes shut), so I put it in her hands and then finally after a little while she finally decided to open her eyes but it took eating 2 cups of juice and 2 crackers before she did it. I asked Olivia if she wanted to say hi to Eliza and she just looked up and said NO... Like it was no big deal. Although the whole time that Eliza was getting her "pictures taken" Olivia was very concerned as to where she was.

Finally we got the okay to leave and so we did with very little time to make it to out Dr's appointment with the neurologist. They moved there offices to down by the river so we would have to take the tram or drive down there and to drive takes anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes but my mother-in-law is very much "height impaired" so we drove. We were only a little bit late but once we got there we got a good look at the tram and it's rather high up and we decided it was a good thing we drove. We would have been scrapping my mother-in-law off the floor by the time we got down there if we had taken it!!! :)

LOOPY EL... She's still a little out of it but she's talking a bunch and doing really good here but not quite ready to walk on her own. Very unstable still.

This is the infamous unicorn she's so proud of it.

Dr. Seldon said that everything looked great. The hemartoma hasn't grown and he's pretty sure that it won't ever grow. However he still wants us to come back in 2 years for another MRI to make sure. He commented again on how easy it would be to remove the hemartoma from her brain which would mean surgery (he's seemed anxious to do so from the start) But since there are no reasons to remove it we're not about TO! She doesn't have seizures which is a common thing and it's not growing so there is no need. And they can't guarantee that her problems would stop if they did removed it. My thought is how many more problems would they create if there was a problem when they were trying to remove it. Because simple or not it's still brain surgery...

So long and windy I know. Sorry about that. But those are the details. Everything is great and we're home.