Saturday, July 24, 2010

Port Wine Stain

Update from October 2010: We now know that isn't a true Port Wine Stain, but a Hemangioma. See the next post about this here.


When Chloë was 8 days old, I noticed she had what looked like a dark purple splotchy bruise behind her right ear. The only thing I could think of was that she must have pulled on her ear really hard during the night and broken a blood vessel.

But after a few days, the bruise wasn't fading. In fact, it seemed like maybe it was even darker and slightly bigger. It crossed my mind that it looked a bit like a port wine stain, but I couldn't imagine that I would have missed it for the first 8 days of Chloë's life.

After a couple of weeks, I came to terms with the fact that I really must be that oblivious, that that it really must be a port wine stain. But the two blotches kept slowly changing, and I kept meaning to take a picture or two.

So I finally got a few pictures over a week ago, and already they have changed. The rounder spot was once flat, and now has a good height to it, kind of like a mole. Of course I worry because the spots are on her head... close to her brain.

Fortunately, both her Grandpapa Doctor and her Family Practice Doctor think that the growing should slow down, and that the spot shouldn't cause her any problems in the future. If the spots do continue to grow, there are options out there for laser treatment or even plastic surgery. We are praying that we won't have to worry about the potentially painful and expensive treatments.

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