As soon as Evi was born, I noticed a mark on her right cheek and under her right eye. The redness of her newborn skin made it difficult to really tell what it was, but I definitely saw it immediately. None of the nurses seemed too worried about it and I knew my pediatrician would stop by at some point that day so I was hoping to see what he thought. Honestly, I was assuming it was just birth trauma. Maybe a bruise or something. It didn't protrude from the skin... more of a mass of blood vessels just under the surface. I had seen birthmarks before and this didn't immediately seem to be that.
Around six, my pediatrician came by and said he didn't think it was a bruise or from birth, but did think it was maybe a stork bite. He said we'd watch it, but didn't seem alarmed whatsoever. After he left, I began to google stork bites, birthmarks, etc. I hadn't slept in over 48 hours and was emotional and hormonal and the last thing I should've been doing was searching the Internet for a diagnosis. The things I read in those hours and over the next few weeks were horrific. I read all about how birthmarks could be a sign of serious health issues and totally freaked myself out.
In the first week of Evi's life, I saw her main pediatrician, the PA, and the other pediatrician in the clinic. All of them throwing out stork bite and hemangioma as a possible diagnosis. I also talked to one of my best friends (Lauren) who happens to be a pediatrician and again heard the same terms. The problem is that even though I've never been to medical school, I didn't think any of what I was reading or pictures I was seeing online about stork bites and hemangiomas resembled Evi's birthmark. I also began to realize that hemangioma is sort of a broad umbrella term that many birthmarks fall under so I was left with lots of questions still as well as all sorts of anxiety. Even though no one thought this birthmark was one to be concerned with, no one could with certainty diagnose it which did little to ease my fears.
At my six week postpartum visit to my OB, I broke down and told her that I was feeling overly paranoid about Evi's health particularly about her birthmark. She assured me that Evi's birthmark was something that could easily be removed with a laser and because I have such a close relationship with her, some of my fears were alleviated. She also thought I was dealing with some postpartum anxiety and cautioned me to call her if I felt it was getting out-of-control. Because I was nursing, she was relunctant to put me on medicine for my anxiety because the meds would keep the baby from sleeping which would then sleep deprive me even more and potentially only heighten my anxiety from being sleep deprived instead of helping it.
As the months went on, I waivered between thinking Evi's birthmark was changing and admitting that I didn't think it was. One thing that made it rather difficult to monitor was the fact that Evi was growing rather rapidly as babies do.... obviously as her face was growing, the birthmark was bound to look a little different even if it wasn't actually changing.
At Evi's six month appointment, Dr. K again asked me if I thought it was growing, getting darker, etc. I told him honestly that I thought it might be, but only because I knew that if it was changing that it was more than likely going to go away on its own. I was too educated and was having a difficult time knowing what the reality was. This appointment was a big changing point for me because Dr. K mentioned that he would refer us to an ENT in town if we didn't notice a significant change over the next few months. He assured me that even though sending us to an ENT seemed unusual that this ENT had studied under the doctor who helped pioneer laser dye therapy. I left this appointment with hope that answers were around the corner.
At some point, I happened to run into a friend of mine from college who had just moved back to Oklahoma and was a dermatologist. In the middle of BabyGap, I showed her Evi's cheek and asked for her opinion. She immediately said hemangioma and that it should go away on its own. I asked her when she thought it should go away and she said probably by the time she was TEN! I had read that they usually resolved before then so I was a bit discouraged. Granted, she was fresh out of dermatology school and in the middle of trying to shop, but I wasn't too excited with her answer! =)
In the months leading up to Evi's one year appointment, Devin and I talked about what to do. We hated to remove something that would go away on its own, but the problem with waiting is that if the birthmark didn't go away on its own, it might be more difficult to remove the older she was and well, also kids could be mean and we hated to subject her to that if we could have done something sooner. We also struggled with the fact that we think Evi is absolutely beautiful and didn't want removing it to insinuate otherwise. As we talked, we decided that we needed more answers so that we could make an informed decision and were also encouraged by Lauren to go ahead an get the referral to a specialist at Evi's one year appointment. She agreed that there was no reason to wait and that even if we only confirmed that it would go away on its own, we would have more information on when that might be and what our options would be if it didn't. I really appreciated having a friend who could give us both personal and professional advice!
Evi's one year appointment was scheduled on her birthday, but unfortunately, our pediatrician ended up taking vacation during that week and though we could have seen another doctor in the practice, I really wanted to see Dr. K to get the referral so her appointment was delayed two additional weeks. Torture for me who was dying to get this whole process started.
Finally, her appointment with Dr. K arrived and as we talked about her birthmark, I could tell he was leaning towards just watching it for a few more months. I quickly asked him if we could be referred to which he said "Of course! I will get you Dr. Glade's information and just let us know if they need anything from us in order to get an appointment." I was so thankful that he realized how important it was to me and agreed that we should go ahead and meet with Dr. Glade.
I literally called Dr. Glade's office from the parking lot of Dr. K's office. Unfortunately, his first opening wasn't for another six weeks, but I was ecstatic to have an appointment.
At this point, in the course of Evi's first year, I had talked with 6 medical professionals who all diagnosed it as a hemangioma. It was not. Facial lesions are fairly difficult to diagnose and as I recently discovered, only 10% of all babies are born with a vascular birthmark and out of those 90% of them are typically a hemangioma of some sort. Obviously, this is why I heard this diagnosis repeatedly throughout the first year. Thankfully, we were close to finding out what it really was! Next up, our appointment with Dr. Glade!
(I'm going to try to dig through more pics and do a post just on that since some pictures show her birthmark more prominently than others do.)
