I debated on whether or not to write this blog post or not. It is very personal to me but after being ask about it multiple times in the past two days I decided to go ahead and tell about it. I hate being ask "What happened to Kaley's head?". People think her head has been accidently hit by something. So here's the answer so you won't have to wonder.
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Well before now I couldn't have told you what a strawberry hemangioma was but now I'm experiencing first hand what it is. It was not present at birth but at about 3 weeks a small red dot appeared on her head and slowly it grew. It looked like her hit had been hit on something. Being a nurse, I figured well her head got hit and it will go down on it's own. I didn't know what had hit it but in my mind I figured it had to have been something. I gave it about 3 weeks not thinking too much of it but instead of regressing the area increased in size. I started to freak myself out so I broke down and called my pediatrician's office. From my description the nurse was unable to tell me what it was but she said to bring her in tomorrow so the doctor could look at it. Immediately I freaked out and became very anxious. I was scared there was something to this now.
We took her to the doctor's office and after seeing it, and even breaking out this weird head gear that he wore to magnify it... He stated it appears to be a strawberry hemangioma. What in the world is that? You know...those "-omas" sometimes aren't too good... carcinoma (cancer) and lymphoma. Well thank goodness a hemangioma is no where related to these other two terrible things.
So what is it? Hemangiomas are a type of vascular birthmark that usually appears a few weeks after birth. It is caused by extra blood vessels that are packed closely together. It is painless and harmless. They have a period of growth and after the growth cycle is over they will regress and usually completely go away. They can basically pop up anywhere on the body. Scalp, face and neck are common areas. Usually they do not require any treatment unless they would be in an area where it was affecting the babies eyes, eating process, or breathing. Thank goodness Kaley's is no where like that. And so far it is fairly small, it's probably around dime.
But I will admit, I've cried and stressed over it. The stressful part is you don't know when the growth phase will stop and of course I had to google it which was probably the worse thing to do. Google can scare you death sometimes. You know like googling a bug bite and then diagnosing yourself that you have West Nile Virus and are going to die in 24 hours so you start on your bucket list (exaggerating a little bit but you get what I am saying). I'm just so scared it will get big but the pediatrician said he didn't think it would get very large. But there's nothing I can do but pray for it which I'm doing and wait for it to go away.
It ends up being in a good location on her head though. I had been putting hairbands and bows on her anyways since she was born and it is conviently located under where her hairbands and bows cross. :-)
It's only a cosmetic issue and the thing I need to tell myself is it could be worse. My child is healthy, beautiful and is a miracle to even be here and that's all that matters! And in time "this too shall pass"
Does your child have a birth mark or maybe even a hemangioma? I'd love to hear about your experience.
Update : I thank everyone that has already reached out and told me about there experiences with hemangiomas. So many have wrote me on facebook and it has really helped to hear about other moms and their babies going through the same thing. It makes it feel not quite as rare now. I really do appreciate it! :-)
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