Joel

This boy.  Last year this time he had sludge in his bladder and I was busy googling what that meant and this year I'm googling birthmarks.  He was born with a rather large birthmark on his hip.  I was always glad it was on his hip and not his face.  But it really hasn't bothered him at all. It was really cute when he was little and would try to scrub it off in the bath thinking it was dirt. 

Last year we started getting his birthmark mapped out and measured by a dermatologist just to be on the safe side since apparently his birthmark type can turn cancerous.  We went in for his annual check this morning and the doctor decided to take a dime size biopsy of it. Poor boy.  I had told him he was just getting it measured and pictures of it and they go and cut him open and then stitch him up.  (so in Joels mind I lied to him and when you think about it I did)

  My grandpa always said his dr was knife happy since every time he would go in they would slice him up.  Joel would agree with grandpa today.  Its been changing colors and grew a lot this year so we are getting it checked out to make sure. 

But Joel was a complete rock star!  The same boy who, at the mention of his 4 year old shots, ran out of the exam room screaming bloody murder which ended up in two of us holding him down.  Today he got up on the table and I blocked his face while they gave him a shot and numbed him up then took scissors to cut out a perfect little circle (I was impressed) and then stitched him up.  I unfortunately had to see it all because I was the buffer and while I almost got sick a few times it was also fascinating how they did it.  It was deep and big.  Joel didn't even flinch.  The doctors were very impressed with Joel and so was I.  We go back in two weeks to get the stitches out but he's already refusing to go back so I have two weeks to talk him into it.

I took him and Norah to Duck Donuts after and this sweet boy didn't want to pick out donuts for himself.  He wanted to pick out donuts for Colin and made sure to get all of Colin's favorite ones. 

Tonight while Brent was putting him to bed he quietly asked Brent, "daddy....why did the doctor cut me up?"  Hard to explain to a child why you have to be proactive for cancer.  And if we mention cancer, Colin would freak out because he remembers How-How with cancer.  Colin has emptied his piggy bank each spring for the school cancer awareness week so a cure can be found and people like How-How can be cured.  These boys make me an even bigger worrier than I already was but man am I really really proud of them