Travis thought these photos were to sad for the blog but a few of my friends and family said they would like to see them so I'm sorry if it looks too gross.
My kids think he looks like the Phantom of the Opera. The good news is that it will look much better very soon. The burns usually go away within a week. Then the birthmark looks red for a while and gradually fades to light pink. We are hoping to see a big improvement this time. I'll try to include some before and after pics when he is completely healed. The doctor was impressed by how light it was from only 3 treatments. If you look at photos from other posts his face looks pretty good.
Everyone always asks me if it hurts. Well I'm not sure how much it hurts. Ethan seemed very cheery during the whole recovery. This picture is on the way home from the hospital and he is snapin' his fingers and dancing to the music. We only gave him pain killers the first day and then he seemed fine. We even went to Bearlake the next day and he was great.
I always worry about subjecting him to more pain, anesthesia, and procedures. I hope I am doing the right thing. Hopefully some day Ethan will see these pictures and think I made the right choices for him.
Some guy at church asked me why I would put him through all of this, he said "Why don't you just leave him the way heavenly father made him" I thought about saying "Why don't you mind your own damn business." but I was in church after all so I just tried to explain that left untreated a port wine stain can become a medical issue with complications and risk of bleeding. He looked skeptical the whole time, and then asked me, "what's with the scar?" I said "He had brain surgery 2 months again." Then I went back into the chapel. I'd rather wrestle with Ethan in the meeting than try to justify myself to the loser in the forier.
