He-man-gi-----wha?

Hemangioma.

A word I barely knew two weeks ago but now can recite all the types, growth patterns, and treatments.
Here is what I have learned:
*They are a type of birthmark that is not usually present at birth
*They occur in 10% of infants
and up to 25% of preemies.
*They are usually not present at birth but appear a few weeks after
*The most common type are the red raised type or "strawberry patches"
*There are also "deep" and "cavernous" hemangiomas
*Typically they grow rapidly for the first 3+ months and then shrink at a much slower rate, and usually disappear by age 3 or 4.
*When they are on the nose they are even more of a problem because they are not friendly to cartilage.

WHY do I know all this? The little "bruise" on Rece's nose that appeared at 6 weeks is still there and after looking back at some pictures over the last 8 weeks, it has also gotten a little bigger and also a little darker. A lot of people don't notice it but we do since we see it everyday. The last time we were at the Peds they said to keep an eye on it and to let them know if it didn't go away. So we watched it and it didn't go anywhere, and since it is a "deep" hemangioma (one below the skin) and they don't see as many of this type and because of its location, they referred us to a pediatric dermatologist 2 hours away at a larger specialized hospital. We went today.

The Dr. was great he said it always breaks his heart when he sees "Nasal Tip Hemangioma" as the cause of the visit, but he said he was happy to see that Rece has a "good one" - relatively speaking of course. He said his is super small and that it is basically done growing. He thought we may see a tiny bit of further growth but then it would begin shrinking and would shrink the most between year 1 and year 2 leaving no visible signs by the time he is preschool age. He also said that he is very aggressive in treatment when they are on the nose because when they grow large they leave a floppy sack of skin when they are gone which then would require plastic surgery. However, he didn't' recommend any treatment for Rece's as it was a "good" one. So that made me feel a lot better. I also left feeling so very very thankful, after he told us that he sees them 50 to 60 times bigger than what Rece has and has to prescribe "unfriendly" treatments like steroids and laser treatments. Thank God it looks like we won't have to go through that. I can't imagine seeing him go through that....crossing my fingers that the specialist is right and we won't have to.