While Karsten was in the NICU he had tape on his face to hold up his oxygen tubes and feeding tubes for most of the two months there. When they finally took the tape off we noticed these two small red marks on his right cheek. We all thought that they were scratches from tape and that they would go away. Each day they seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. His doctor looked at it and let us know that they were hemangiomas. A hemangioma is defined as a benign tumor of blood vessels that form a red birthmark. These hemangiomas will often go away on there own by the time the child is between 5-8 years old.
Karsten's hemangioma wasn't an issue because they weren't sitting on any major facial parts and didn't seem to cause any alarm so we planned to let them go away on their own. His pediatrician went three weeks without seeing him and when we finally went in she was surprised at how large they were growing. The red marks on his cheek are staying the same size, but under those is a large blue ball-like formation that is growing very large. It is causing his right side to pull and droop down. She referred us to a dermatologist to get his opinion on what to do.
We met with his dermatologist a few days later who decided that he was a good candidate for a medication that has proven to work wonders for babies with hemangiomas. Because Karsten is still so young they were worried about how he would respond to the medication so they wanted us to stay in the hospital for two days so they could monitor him as he began treatment.
On February 7th we checked into the hospital around 9am. They did a few tests, which Karsten hated, and started hooking him back up to the monitors that we know so well.
Karsten is a very picky sleeper. We have moved him into three new beds and have finally found one that he loves. We knew that he would hate the huge crib they have for him so luckily we brought his bed from home so he could sleep nicely.
Karsten was a champ and handled the medication like a professional! He didn't have any difficulties at all. We loved being at the hospital because we were able to have one of our very favorite nurses from our NICU days. It was a fun reunion and we were glad that he had so many people who were looking after him. He was a happy boy the whole time!
We are now home and happy! He will continue the medication until it goes away. We are already seeing a huge improvement!
Good job kicking butt once again Karsten!
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