strawberry birthmark

Our host for this week is Laurie at ~ Our daugherl has a condition called Strawberry Birthmark or Hemangioma in medical terms. It's located on her left cheek below her eye lid. On November 01, 2004, we've gone to the Pediatrician who confirmed it is a Hemangioma. He went to some length in explaining that it is actually a Hemangioma and not a Port Wine Stain and that a Hemangioma is the less serious of the two. This is because a Hemangioma typically appears shortly after birth, grows rapidly within the first couple of months to two years but then ultimately begins to involute or regress through the remaining childhood years until it fades or disappears entirely. Knowing this, doctors usually leave Hemangiomas alone. If that is the case, then doctors normally use a steroid to stop its growth and even shrink it , as long as it happens to grow and compromise the nearby vital organ. We also wanted to wait for the Opthalmologists assessment of the threatened eye before making any further decisions. He also consulted an eye surgeon. The surgeon said her eye is perfect and that there was no need to use steroids thus far. Two weeks later, we were back at Sick Children's to see an eye lid specialist. He said that he thought that the Hemangioma was pushing on the eye and that it would be a good idea to go ahead with the steroids. Again we asked if we could wait until we had the results of the MRI to get a clearer picture of the eye. Inside, the nurses tried for over 30 minutes to hook Abby up to a monitor before placing her in the MRI. The pick up sensor for the monitor would work for a while until Abby was rolled into the MRI then the signal was lost. The MRI revealed that the hemangioma was deeper than we thought, reaching almost to the eye socket. The hemangioma appeared to have stabilized and even improved. Children are easier to take in some ways as they tend not to shy away from asking questions directly and walking right up to Abby and touching her cheek. Many have said they know someone, a friend or relative who has had or who has a hemangioma. strawberry birthmark strawberry birthmark