Yuan is now 7 months old, each day I am thankful that nothing as "worst" as what happened last May 2009 has happened. My little boy has strawberry hemangioma, 3 of them to be exact - on his chest, on his butt cheeks and inside his lower eyelid. They just popped out of his skin when Yuan turned 1 month, I have been told about how to take care of it and over all I shouldn't worry too much cos hemangiomas usually fade as the child grows up. I also did my part in researching, opening up my Nursing books so I could get infos about hemangiomas as much as I could. It wasn't genetic at all. The ratio is one to three children out of a hundred born everyday gets this and unfortunately Yuan was one of them. In less than five percent of children, the hemangioma can leave a divot in the skin during its fading away phase and in our case it happened...
Yuan@2monthsold, his strawberry hemangioma starting to grow
So I didn't worry, I took care of Yuan's birthmark from possible abrasions, cutsand such. Up until one day last May 2009, his yaya noticed his birth mark was sort of peeling off (in other term NAMAMALAT or GAPAMANIT, I forgot the term in english), so I didn't mind thinking that maybe my child's hemangioma is undergoing its "fade away" phase like I read in the Internet. I just noticed one day that his hemangioma was slowly ulcerating by itself...
This is how Yuan's hemangioma started to be like by May 2009. It was slowly progressing rapidly until the whole birth mark was an open ulceration like a bedsore. I lost Yuan's hemangioma's actual photo during that time but it was worst looking than this. Later it was slowly secreting pus and started to smell. I took him to another Pedia here in Iloilo, a Pediatric Surgeon and he advised me that somehow Yuan is still lucky cos his birth mark is superficial and not inside his organs. He gave us Bactroban for application on the open ulcer so it wont getinfected, the funny part was he didn't specify what kind of Bactroban we should be getting -- OINTMENT or CREAM. So I brought the ointment and to my dismay, his hemangioma is still becoming agressive.
June 2009, I took the advice of his Ninang Em-Em to try and see a Dermatologist, we did after a week, visited Dr. Ascalon-Celiz. And somehow she had calmed me. What happened to Yuan's hemangioma is somewhat rare for hemangioma cases - some undergo ulceration and others do not. origin, its just like they cut open The saddest part of it is that the causes for ulceration are of unknown by themselves. She gave me an option for treatment - to do laser surgery or having the child undergo laser therapy. Although she still didn't want to let Yuan undergo steroid therapy cos he's too young and the downside of Steroid therapy can be harmful to the child (my brother has Renal Failure and his steroid therapy affected him so much too, since it hindered his growth and his puberty) and my mom also opposed. Dr. Ascalon-Celiz advised us to wait a little more, to observe the ulceration better and if I noticed that its becoming aggressive, like its boring in, we came back to her and discuss our mode of treatment. She also advised me to continue putting Bactroban Ointment. I was worried about his hemangioma that time cos my family is arriving and I don't want them to think that I neglected Yuan.
My little fella can still manage to smile
By the time my family arrived in June 27, 2009 Yuan's hemangioma was still the same. They respond to the Bactroban Ointment for only a limited period of time,they dry up, leave scab (in ilonggo, KUGAN) and then secrete (still) pus and now they smelled foul. I pity Yuan that time cos you can't hold him on the chest areacos you might be pressing his wound, like what happened one Sunday when weheard mass. I accidentally placed in in a position that pressed his wound, he cried endlessly and we ended up buying a stroller.
His hemangioma on aggressive ulceration stage, June 27, 2009
I couldn't bare seeing my kid in that kind of state. You feel useless cos you know you can't do anything to stop the pain, to stop the wound from digging deeper. It came to a point when you just couldn't bare looking at his wound. I could justimagine the pain that agonizes him, all the discomforts he might be feeling... You pray harder than ever and then you ask yourself why did this happen to your child, why didn't it happen to you instead...I felt guilty somehow cos I didn't know what to do, even if you are of medical background when its your child, you panic and you go blank.
My mom brought a Bactroban Cream and we tried it instead of the ointment,seeing that they doing respond to it very well... And just like that, along with prayers answered, Yuan's hemangioma slowly healed one day at a time...
This was the last photo I took of his hemangioma, this was last July 27, 2009. Itook a shot of it after we paid his dermatologist a visit, so that she could note
progress of Yuan's hemangioma. Doc said he is lucky cos it healed quickly by itself.
This is the latest pic of his healed hemangioma as of August-September 2009, its not that clear cos I was using my fone's camera when my DSLR ran out of batteries...
So we were saved from Steroid Therapy! Yey! Wan's much better now but still I am on full alert... Thank you to everyone who have prayed and loved this little boy since day one, the Ninongs and Ninangs, Salamat gid! He's a fighter all right!
