The Story of Mason

Many of you have asked and wondered so I guess it is time for me to let everyone know and ease the curiousity. Mason is the most perfect and happy 4 month old ever, well maybe not ever, but so much happier and relaxed then Macayla ever was. He was born on 6/16/10 and cut his first tooth on 9/16/10 and his second joined us on 9/17/10. Yes two teeth at 3 months of age absolutely crazy. Mason is a unique child that was born with a mark on the side of his face. When I first saw this mark I told the nurses that they missed cleaning that side of his face before bringing him back to me. They immediately said that it was a mark that I would need to talk to the doctor about. My heart sank, and Doug and I held the tears back. What could possibly be wrong with our precious baby? The next day an associate of our pediatrician came in and saw him. She never officially told us what the mark was, she thought it was called a port wine stain, but recommended that we talk to our doctor the next day. Needless to say Doug spent most of that day researching what port wine stain is and all of the possible treatments. That is when all of my panic set in. There was a huge amount of possibe issues. Our doctor agreed with the diagnosis. For all of you who don't know yet, port wine stain is where the nerves did not seal off the blood capilaries allowing extra blood to pool near the skin. Treatment is done by laser, but not permanent. At Mason's first week appointment we were recommended to see a hemangioma team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. This was familiar territory as we go twice a year for Macayla's ears. We were scheduled for August 27th. Finally some answers to our array of questions. By the time our appointment came around I had gotten so relaxed about him and knew that nothing was wrong. I even got to the point of thinking about not having any treatment done, if this is what God gave him than this is him. The first doctor we saw introduced herself as Denise Adams no doctor title, just a nice down to earth woman. She did a physical exam and ruled out most of our worst fears, whew! Jackie later informed me that Dr. Adams is on the board of vascular anomalies which is what a port wine stain is considered. That meant we were dealing with one of the top people in the nation. Then came Dr Elluru, who was fabulous. He suggested beginning laser treatments at six months of age. The treatments will not make the mark completely vanish, but will diminish it tremendously, althought they will have to be repeated two times a year for several years and then once a year after that till unknown. They also recommended we see an Opthamologist to rule out any possible issues with the Optic nerve as the mark was up in line with his eye. What about his eye? This was another possibility that we never thought of. Now the worries began again. After hearing the list of issues that could be possible if his Optic nerve was affected I called to get a pediatric opthamologist appointment scheduled on the way home. A month later we saw Dr. Bloom for his eyes and God has been with us through the entire process as his eyes are great, and the nerve is not touched. We were to go back to Cincinnati when he is 6 months of age, but we've since been told it is a possibility that insurance will cover the first treatment, so we are headed back down on December 21st for his first treatment. We couldn't ask for a better Christmas present. Of course I will cry with nerves and anxiety as my little prince will not look the same as I've known for 6 months, but he will now be even more handsome. Until then he is still perfect and unflawed it just so happens that his angel wore a lot more lipstick then the other angels. I keep saying that it was Doug's mom leaving her mark! There are days that it looks like it has faded, and then he gets mad and it is gets darker than it had for days. It is our way of telling his mood and right now it is hard to imagine him looking any different.