A Birthmark Update

As longtime readers know, Our Bird has a birthmark (a "capillary malformation") all along her left leg from just under the diaper line all the way down to her tootsies. She saw a birthmark specialist, Dr. Nelson, shortly after she was born. (Longtime readers may again recall that she impressed him greatly by pooping on his trouser leg, sock, and shoe.) At the time, Dr. Nelson's sense was that her birthmark would not impact the growth of the limb (as when it does, it usually "presents" at birth), but he wanted to examine her again at a year. He measured her legs and compared the color of the birthmark to the pictures he'd taken of it nearly a year ago. Her legs are the same length and circumference and the birthmark is lighter in color, all of which means the birthmark likely isn't having deeper effects on the limb. It is now safely treated as a cosmetic issue that we will discuss with Baby Bird when she is older and starting to develop her sense of self and have thoughts and opinions about how she looks. The appearance of the sort of birthmark our Baby Bird has can be reduced with lasers, but cannot be eliminated entirely. In some locations on the body, early treatment with lasers can increase the effectiveness of the treatment, but such is not the case with where Baby Bird's birthmark is.

It can be easy, you know, to get worked up about things like birthmarks. Dr. Nelson's office happens to be in the Hematology and Oncology Speciality Clinic, which means we arrived for our appointment with our lovely little girl and shared the waiting area with lots of other little people who were obviously waging the sort of a battle everyone dreads. We felt very lucky to be there to have a birthmark examined, and to have Our Bird, and Our Hero, with no such fights to wage at so young an age.