Hey y’all, my name is Cami and my daughter Ella James is 2.5 years old. She was born a sweet petite at 6.12lbs and 20” long - perfect in every way shape & form.
My husband, Stephen, and I were immediately smitten by our little bundle of joy and couldn’t wait to get home from the hospital to begin our journey as a party of 3. I have dreamed my whole life of becoming a Momma, and she is every dream come true I ever hoped for.
Her second week home, I was bathing her in the kitchen sink and noticed what looked like a roundish-reddish bruise on her right shoulder, I called for Stephen to come look at it and neither of us could figure it out. There was no way she could’ve gotten a bruise!
I called my mom who is a nurse, and sent her pictures. She told me it looked like a hemangioma, but to call our pediatrician and have her seen. Neither I nor Stephen had heard the word hemangioma before, and it sounded scary because it is a tumor: a mushroom of blood vessels : so I wanted Stephen to go with us to her appointment.
Our pedi confirmed right off the bat that it was a hemangioma, and explained that it will grow rapidly her first year of life, then enter a dormant stage and she should grow into it before she is 10 years old. I shuddered at the length of time but was thankful to hear it wasn’t connected to any major organs. He offered us two options:
The first was an oral medication, which he was hesitant to put her on so young because it has a tendency to mess with their sugars. The second option wasn’t really an option because hers isn’t anywhere cosmetic, but he said down the road if it hasn’t gone away that we could do surgery to remove it.
I didn’t like either of the options, so we took her home and lived life as her hemangioma grew and grew. It changed from being red and flush with her skin to protruding about an inch off her shoulder, deep purple in color. It was warm to the touch, and very soft.
Her first birthday was fast approaching and I was excited planning ideas for food & decorations. At this point, her hemangioma had become normal to us and it never bothered her.
About a week before she turned one, it randomly started scabbing over - it never bled but by the time we got her in to see the pediatrician the scab had come off twice! Still never bled. Our pedi said this was normal at this stage, but insisted we start her on the oral medication Propranolol to rid of the scab issue.
The medicine seemed to work, her birthmark turned from deep purple/red to a fainter more pale red. She was on the medicine for 6 weeks, but we took her off because the changes were nothing drastic and I didn’t feel comfortable having her on the medication for that long.
It never grew after her first year of life, just remained a large red bulge about the size of an avocado seed.
She started walking at 11 months old, and I never put her in an outfit that left her shoulder uncovered because I was terrified she would fall and penetrate it on something and would lose a large amount of blood in a short time. So I always covered her shoulders no matter if it was pajamas or outfit of the day.
Fast forward a few months, Ella was almost 1.5 years old when she finally saw it for the first time. She was standing in front of our floor length mirror after a bath, I hadn’t put her jammies on her yet. She saw it in the mirror and it scared her, she started crying and grabbing it trying to pull it off.
I didn’t realize she’d never seen it before and a feeling of guilt overwhelmed me as I sat on the floor holding my baby trying to explain to her that everything is okay but that she can’t pull on it. That it is part of her, and it is beautiful.
For a few months after that, she would reach around with her left hand and feel for it, mess with it then leave it alone after being reminded to be gentle with it. This became another reason I kept it covered, I didn’t want her hurting herself trying to pull on it, so a shirt was always on her at all times.
Ella is now approaching 3 years old and she knows her “birfmart” is there; she is proud of it and will tell you she got kissed by an angel. I no longer dress her in clothes that cover it, and looking back I realize it wasn’t necessary to cover it all the time - I just didn’t know any better and wanted to protect her at all costs.
When the time comes for her to begin school we will address it again with our pedi if it hasn’t gone down in size, but for now we live it up and embrace our beautiful baby girl for everything that she is! It’s not what’s on the outside that defines us, it’s all inside & let me tell you - this girl has the biggest heart of gold with a soft spirit to match.
These unique birthmarks draw attention to them; we’ve only had one bad experience with someone being ugly about it and my husband nipped that in the bud immediately. Most people have no idea what a hemangioma is, and are too timid to ask.
I encourage people to ask questions: knowledge is power and the more you know, the more you can encourage and support others.
I can’t tell you how happy it made me to hear from Diana and learn about this community she has created to bring awareness and knowledge to the public. We’re in this together Mommas!
Love,
Cami
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