My Special Bump

I've mentioned in the past that Alanna has a vascular malformation, specifically a venous malformation, on her right cheek. We've been under the care of Dr. Robert Wood since shortly after she was born and for now we've taken the observation route of care. She has another appointment with Dr. Wood next week and we'll discuss where we go from here.

We were very blessed in that Alanna's venous malformation is relatively small (about the size of a 50 cent piece) and is located on the side of her cheek so it is normally pretty unnoticeable. From her MRI a few years back, it is also very contained which makes her potentially a good candidate for surgery at some point.

The venous malformation does have a tendency during the cold snaps to turn a bright bruise-colored blue. This is the time that in the past years we run into questions like, "Oh, honey did you fall?" or "What's that bump on your cheek?" or occasionally the raised eyebrow like one of us smacked her across her face.

We've tried very hard to simply explain to Alanna that it's a bump she was born with and that we have a wonderful doctor who makes sure she's taken care of. We've also gotten a second opinion from the Boston Children's Hospital where there is a vascular anomalies conference. We keep an eye on it and check in with her to make sure it's not causing any pain.

Now that she's started school and it's currently bright blue, I've spoken with her teacher but knew the inevitable questions would start. So we talked about it earlier this week when it started turning color. She asked why it was blue sometimes and I told her it was a good question for us to ask Dr. Wood next week, but that the blue was the blood vessels showing through the skin and compared it to the veins in the back of my hand which are also blue.

Today she came home and told me that another teacher had asked about her "special bump". She told the teacher she was born with it and the teacher had responded, "but you didn't have it last week". My wonderful mature little girl informed her that "it changes color".

She and I talked about it tonight and I told her she'd done everything just right and that if people had additional questions she could tell them to talk to her teacher or to her mommy.

I know that teachers and other adults who inquire are simply concerned about her well-being and on some level I would certainly want them to ask if something were happening, but it still kills me just a little inside to know that others would not trust her answer or believe that Jeb or I hit her.

Some pictures from this week. It's hard to capture on film with good detail: