Today Keith and I took Cade in for an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist about the port wine stain (capillary malformation) Cade has on his left face.
In talking with the doctor, he recommends 6 to 12 pulsed dye laser treatments. The treatments would be every 6 to 8 weeks. The treatment would break up the capillaries. And it takes about 6 to 8 weeks for those to be reabsorbed into his body. At each appointment, they would review how the treatment went and how to move forward. Overall the goal of the treatment is to lighten the birthmark, which won't lighten on its own.
Initially we thought it would just be a cosmetic issue. But in talking with the doctor, it is actually a preventive issue. If left untreated, when he became a teenager that hormones and growth spurts could cause the birthmark to be raised or such.
They can start treatments at 6 months of age. They prefer to have treatments completed by age 2 or 3. At that age, kids start to realize what is happening and don't "cooperate" as well.
As far as the treatments, Cade would have a topical anesthetic cream to help reduce any pain. Eventually he would have to have general anesthetic when they treat the lower eyelid area.
As far as his birthmark, it also shows up a bit in the gum area of his mouth. The laser treatments should help with this. But we may have to continue to monitor his gums and teeth (thankfully we have a great pediatric dentist Kory has seen!)
He will also have to continue to have annual eye doctor appts to monitor his eye and any possible problems with pressure - his appt in June showed a perfect eye. His next eye appt is in Dec.
Overall we are very impressed with this doctor. We'll be making the call to set up treatments. We'll keep you all posted on when the treatments start and the results we see.
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