"The red bump"

So you've probably noticed that Ben has had this red bump on his cheek for several months now. It started in July (you can actually go back to the blog and watch it develop! Thanks to technology and my photographic journaling, I can pinpoint when it was) as a little pimple type thing that he scratched and it's gotten bigger progressively since then. When he went to his 4 year old well child visit in November the pediatrician said she thought it was either a pyogenic granuloma or a spider angioma. Not matter, it would fall off and not be a problem.

Well here we are in March now and it's still here and obviously getting more pronounced on his cheek. Strangers are now asking what it is! We were at breakfast this weekend and a stranger commented how much he liked Ben's red hair and then said, "and he's got a red thing on his face." Kids in Addie's class have asked about it a lot, etc. Ben feels like he's always had it, and his answer is usually like "it's my red bump." Duh!

I took him to the pediatric dermatologist (actually Muddy brought him, and I met them since it's at my hospital). It turns out that it's a combination of the two! It will continue to get bigger if we don't do anything, so I'm glad we got it looked at now. Last night we started an at home treatment of silver nitrate on the red bump, which we will alternate every other night for a week. Ideally, it was shrivel the bump away to nothingness, just leaving a flat red mark. If that happens, then he will go back to the dermatologist for a one time laser treatment (it's just a flashlight, not really as exciting as it sounds). That will "kill" the blood vessels that are clustered and it'll disappear totally. If the silver nitrate doesn't shrivel it up within ten days, we'll be heading to the plastic surgeon to have it removed. I'd rather not have it go that route, but time will tell.

So if you look at the picture I posted from tonight, where he's being his sweet angelic self, you'll see the red bump has some brown on it and there are some brown ashes on his cheek-that's from the silver nitrate. It didn't look any different this morning when he woke up and throughout the day, that part turned brown and I guess he smeared it. Hoping the other stains come off of his skin eventually!!