How do you decide if surgery is right?

Melanie - posted on 05/30/2010

If she does opt for reconstructive surgery I would advise her to wait untill she has finished developing so she doesn't have to go through so many operations.

Melanie - posted on 05/30/2010

I would talk to a dermatolagist first, usually the propanalol doesn't work later in life but it is a very new treatment and they realy don't know alot about it. Even my daughters treatment doesn't go by any rules except the amount she can have based on her weight. I would see iff they are willing to try. Anything is worth a try I always say. With surgery and how you are discribing your daughters hemangioma I would asume they would have to remove part of her breast which might wind up being just as disfiguring as the birthmark is. She is still young and may decide she has made a wrong choice later if chooses surgery, also reconstructive surgery is amazing now and breast reconstrution has come a long way because of breast cancer. You might want to see if you can find a councelor who has dealt with people with breast cancer, I would think someone like that would be well equiped to talk to your daughter about how she feels about it and they might know about some reconstructive options available to your daughter. My son is 12 and he has a bowel disorder and even though we have a very open and understanding relationship he doesn't always want to talk to me about certain things. Especially things that make him feel uncomfortable, kids don't always want to talk to us about things they might consider sexual or private. Plus this is the age that they like to take control of these things for themselfs. Good luck and I wish your daughter the best :)

Kimberly - posted on 02/03/2010

My daughter is 11 years old as well. Allyson's covered the whole left side of her face and ulcerated around her mouth. We opted for lip reconstruction and she has had three of them now. She has quite a bit of scarring still and gets quite a few stares and I can see that it still bothers her some. We just got the pics out again yesterday to upload them to the Parents support group on FB and we see how far she has come. I'm not sure that I would have opted for the surgery if it wouldn't have been on her face, but then again, I may have if it bother her a lot. How about just getting a consultation with both a dermatologist and a plastic surgeon? Laser surgery may be all that's needed for the color. Most of Allyson's redness is gone because of laser surgery done when she was a baby. I think the laser is what aggravated the hemangioma to ulcerate, but her dr. told me that it would have done that anyway. Who knows....I would think that after so many years that since the hemangioma is no longer in the growing stage that it wouldn't ulcerate anymore. Good Luck! :o)

Stefanie - posted on 01/30/2010

My daughter is a lot younger (13 months now) but when she was 2 months old she developed a Hemangioma on the tip of her nose. Just like you said it started out looking like a bruise and then just got bigger. We acted fast due to the fact it was on her nose and could have caused breathing problems. We went to dermatologist and obviously our pediatrician and after really not getting any good answers on treatment options I research and found a specialist who is a surgeon in our area. I went just to hear what he had to say. I asked him about all of our options as well as things I had researched on my own. Steroids (a newer treatment) was not right for her but he recommended was laser surgery instead. I like many others was skeptical as well as scared. After having everyone from doctors to family and friends give me their two cents on what to do I went with my on instinct and scheduled the surgeries. Dr. Burns the doctor was very informative and insured me that this was the only choose for us and also that we needed to act quickly due to the location of her Hemangioma. He walked me through everything and answered every question including, “why do most people tell you to leave Hemangiomas alone and let them go away on there own” his answer and one I truly believe in now is because they don’t relies the MANY new treatment options available. After really having to let go and have confidence in this surgeon my baby girl under went 3 laser surgeries all in the first year of her life. She just recently had one and now we are waiting to see what the next step is. I will say the Hemangioma itself is completely gone there is no extra mass on the tip of her nose and the purple and red coloring is gone as well. The only time you can see anything is if you are right in her face and even then its skin color now not purple/red and that will go away as well. I just wanted you to know that there are treatment options even for an 11 year old and they are not that bad or painful and in the long run it will help her to be confident. I will also say people not just kids are MEAN we encountered many comments that if my daughter would have been older could have affected her. Now that we have done the surgery that is just one more reason I now I did the best thing for her. You should contact a specialist in your area if there is one if not a dermatologist. If not anything else they can just give you options. If you have any other questions or would like to see pictures of before and afters this was our doctors site http://www.kidsplastsurg.com/

and it gives you lots of treatment options as well as pictures. Hope this helps!