Hi my name is Alaina but everyone calls me Boogie and here's my story! 

  Boogie was born October 29th 2022. She was a healthy 8 1/2 lb chunky beautiful babygirl. You know...the kind you just wanna squeeze. Well that was her. She was everything we ever prayed for and more! Life was perfect. 

  When Boogie was about three months old I noticed underneath her right eye started to look black and blue. It was puffy as well. I pointed it out to her father and her agreed something wasn't normal. We took her in to the pediatrician right away. We were told it was a clogged tear duck and nothing to concerning. They gave us some medicine and said to call in a week if nothing is better. Well the week went by and her eye was worse. It was beginning to look lopsided. This time when we took her in to see the pediatrician we were told we have to see an eye specialist. The appointment was made for the following week. 

We travel to Baltimore to see the specialist and several doctors look at her while we're there. They tell us that she needs an MRI. They believe it was a hemangioma but the MRI would confirm it. The problem we were facing is that she was so young she needed to be sedated for the MRI. While the doctors worked on getting a hospital to do the MRI Boogie got to pick out a cute pair of pink glasses. 

Fast forward (March) the MRI did confirm it was infact hemangioma. It was great news because it was an easy fix. The doctor prescribe medicine and we followed up for next few months. Although something in my gut told my to ask for another MRI and when I did the doctors didn't feel it was necessary because she was doing so well. 

  Boogie's always been such a happy baby. She never really cried or even wined. Mid july I noticed she seem moody BUT she's teething so that's normal. Weeks slowly past and she starts vomiting so I take her back to the pediatrician. "It's a virus"  So I give it a week and she's still not better. Still vomiting and I noticed her left eye started turning inward. I took her back and yet again I was told it was a virus and to make sure she's wearing her glasses. Now we're on week three and my poor baby was still vomiting I also noticed her soft spot was gone. I could tell in my bones something was really wrong but I didn't know what. I told my husband I was talking her to the hospital. 

We spent 4 LONG days at our local hospital a specialist came down from DC. She was a brain cancer doctor and she sat down and was making a list of what didn't make sense. The other doctors wanted to send us home with a protein allergy but we demanded answers. Alaina's heart rate was only 50 beats per min. All she did was sleep. If she was awake she was vomiting or crying. We needed answers and fast. So when that doctor came in and said she specializes and brain cancer I knew something wasn't right. She requested a scan of Boogies head. It indeed showed a tumor. But the tumor wasn't just a tumor. This tumor was the size of a orange. We immediately flew to CHKD. 

To be continued...