What the Heck is That Big Red Thing?

When I was pregnant, Tim and I always use to talk about what we thought our baby would look like. I wanted her to have my eyes and Tim's beautiful olive skin tone. Tim just wanted her to look like me. However, there were two traits I hoped our poor child wouldn't inherit. My nose...and her Daddy's ears.

Right after she was born, Tim and I counted all her fingers and toes. I was ecstatic about the amount of hair on her little head. We instantly noticed her dimple, she inherited that from my dad. Then...we noticed her ears. She had her Daddy's ears. Exactly. Tim has always been very proud of this...because quite honestly, she looks exactly like me. So, he loves the fact that she has his funny ears.

Then...when Emmy was about two months old, Tim and I noticed a little red spot in her ear. Her pediatrician didn't say it was anything to be concerned about, so we didn't worry. But when her Aunt Kari and Uncle Brig saw it, they informed us that they thought it was the same thing her cousin Lydia had on top her her head...a hemangioma.

A hemangioma is a blood tumor. It usually appears when a baby is just a couple days old and goes away around the age of 10. It is the most common type of tumor. No one is sure exactly what causes a hemangioma, but recent research has discovered a gene, suggesting that it is hereditary.

Then, about three weeks later, Emmy's ear looked like this:

The little red spot was now very large. It also started to develop a scab in the middle of it...and it looked quite gross. So, I called her pediatrician, and he had us come in to look at it.

Hemangiomas are quite common. But, because of the rapid growth, and the ulceration, he was concerned about it causing problems with her ear. He referred us to a dermatologist for a second opinion.

I won't go into any details about our experience with the dermatologist, other than the fact that it was a complete and utter waste of time. He was useless...and everything he told us ended up being completely wrong.

After a month, the dermatologist referred us to a specialist at Primary Children's hospital. Dr. Grimmer was wonderful. He asked me how much I knew about hemangiomas, and then informed me, after I had told him everything that Dr. Dumb Dermatologist had told us, that we had been very misinformed. He told us about a treatment that would involve Emmy taking a drug for several months, three times a day. The drug is called Propanolol, and is a well known drug for cardiac problems. It was discovered, by accident, that it clears up hemangiomas quite quickly. He told us that he had used the treatment on hundreds of patients, and the results were amazing. Dr. Grimmer felt that the Propanolol would be a really good option because he was worried that if the hemangioma got any bigger, it would cause a deformity with Emmy's ear, and possibly cause problems with her hearing. He took some pictures for record, and he wanted us to go home, research it on our own, and then come back in a month.

So...Tim and I took the next month to research and pray. Everything I found about Propanolol was extremely positive. Parents wrote about the miracles it worked for their children. I never found anything discouraging...and after praying about it together, Tim and I both felt that we should do the treatment.

At her appointment, Dr. Grimmer took a couple more pictures, and then compared them to the pictures he had taken a month before. Her ulceration had cleared up entirely, and surprisingly, her hemangioma appeared to be smaller. Because of those two things, Dr. Grimmer wanted us to wait on the treatment. He felt that within a couple years, it would go away on it's own. He told us to call if we noticed any changes in it, and that he wanted to see us in a year.

I'll be honest. I was disappointed. I was looking forward to having this horrible thing on my baby's ear disappear. So having the doctor tell me that we would wait to see if it would go away on it's own was not the news I was hoping to hear. I think I was mostly worried that Emmy would be made fun of...and that broke my heart.

Well...a couple weeks ago, we noticed a change in it. It looked to us as though the hemangioma had gotten bigger. Emmy was also pulling on that ear a lot. So, I called Dr. Grimmer's office again, went in for another appointment, and sure enough...it had gotten bigger. He sent us down for an EKG to make sure there weren't any concerns with Emmy's heart before starting her on the Propanolol.

Today is her third day on the medication, and we've already noticed a difference. The bulging on the back of her ear is almost entirely gone and the swelling into her ear canal has gone down substantially. She has to take the medication 3 times a day, and because of the nature of Propanolol, we have to monitor her heart rate an hour after each dose. She is doing amazing!

And...here she is! Our beautiful, sweet, smiley, happy baby.

Oh...and yes, she got my nose. Poor girl.

I'm so in love with her :)