My daughter has a hemangioma. Well, she was born with three. One is very small, less than the size of a dime. But she has two on her face, which, evidently is normal with hemangiomas.
What is a hemangioma? In short it’s a benign blood vessel tumour. They don’t know why the show up, but they think that heredity plays a role. They’re fairly common, and usually resolve on their own by the age of 10. But, as our daughter has two on her face, we decided to go with treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) . She was referred by our family doctor and has been seeing a paediatric dermatologist since she was about 3 months of age.
We elected to treat with beta blockers. This is now the most common therapy for them. We have talked to many people who have had treatment in the past and this is very much an improvement compared to freezing them or other surgeries. Laser surgery may happen down the road, but we will see how things go. Right now the smaller of the two has almost completely resolved.
I refuse to hide my daughter away from the world until they’re gone. I have been stopped and asked what they are, and I use that as an opportunity to educate people.
The child in the picture is not my daughter.
