Hemangioma

A  hemangioma is a benign, and usually a self-involuting tumor, (swelling or growth) of the endothelial cells that line blood vessels and is characterised by increased number of normal or abnormal vessels filled with blood. It usually appears during the first weeks of life and generally resolves by age 10. In more severe cases hemangiomas may leave residual tissue damage. In infancy, it is the most common tumor.^[1] The word "hemangioma" comes from the Greek haema- (αίμα), "blood"; angeio (αγγείο), "vessel"; -oma (-ωμα), "tumor".

Alex's eye

In late January we noticed a very small red bump below Alex's eye.  We actually didn't think a lot of it because it was so small.  I don't have any pictures of it when it was that small because it didn't really occur to me that it was a problem.  The week before Max's birthday at Monkey house....that small red dot became a problem.  one night Alex must have scratched the bump.  It began to bleed and we had a hard time getting it to stop. That night Alex must have scratched it in his sleep because when I got him out of the crib the next morning, he had dried blood all over his face. (yes I freaked out a little).  We were worried that Alex would break it open again at the jump place for Max's birthday party - but luckily he didn't.  Sometime during the next few days after Max's Birthday weekend the bump broke open 5 times in 3 days....3 of those were in a 24 hour period.  Everytime it literally took 30-45 minutes to stop bleeding.  One time it got so bad, I had to frantically call my dad who works at Tyson to take off work and rush over to the house.  I didn't think it needed an ER visit, but I also just couldn't get it to stop bleeding, blood was all of me, all over Alex, and all over the house. Thankfully with my dad's help calming down Alex, over an hour later, it had clotted and finally stopped.  We had an emergency visit with his PCP doctor, who referred us to the dermatologist, who referred us to a facial surgeon. This was where we found out Alex had a hemangioma. Sometimes these things can be cut out easily, sometimes not. I actually had one on my nose when I was pregnant with Max, and it took about 5 minutes to burn it off and I left the office with a band aide.  Alex had a lot of factors against him though.  1.  It had already busted several times (sometimes they never bust at all) 2.  His age - he was only 17 months at the time. 3. The placement.  As you will see in the pictures it was extremely close to his eye which made bandaging it almost impossible without covering his eye. The doctor explained to us the only option was to completely put him under general anethesia and have it cut out.  He ended up having to have 4 stitches.  Some people could not believe he had to have surgery for such a tiny bump.  Well that's why I included some pictures.  Once you see them you will understand why this bump was such a problem at our house! These were some very rough couple of weeks at our house.  I am so thankful it is all over and Alex is a healthy little boy again. His surgery was March 6th, and he had a check up on March 12th and everything looked good.

Happy little guy at the hospital meeting the doctor who was going to do his surgery and go over the procedure

This was his bump the day before surgery.  We were so nervous it was going to pop again.  It was getting bigger.

Thank you Grandpa for helping us keep little Al busy

Alex got some happy juice!  This actually helped everyone relax a lot even though Alex was the only one that got the medicine we all felt the effects :)

Out of surgery, he just wanted to be rocked, poor little guy

finally a BOT!  That is what Alex calls a bottle.  He hadn't been allowed to have any milk since midnight.  He looked so happy when he finally got his bot.

CHEESE!  This is Alex's cheese face. 1 week after surgery we went to have the stitches looked at and removed.  no more bump!