Starring Christian Steven

Christian took his first trip to the Emergency Room two weeks ago.

It all started about two weeks before Christmas. A small red dot appeared below Christian's right eye. It slowly grew into what we thought was a blood blister.

It started bleeding one night. Richard was able to stop the bleeding, but only after rocking Christian to sleep and applying pressure to the blister.

We took Christian to the doctor a week later. The doctor said it was cluster of blood vessels and he will need to see a dermatologist. The earliest they could get Christian in to see the Dermatologist was in 3 1/2 weeks.

These are pictures Molly took three days before the ER trip. The raised red bump below his eye is the cluster of blood vessels. The red mark between his eyes is from a clock falling on his head. (That'll be another blog entry)

The Sunday after these pictures were taken, I looked over at Christian who had been "reading" a book. He had blood smeared across his cheek and he was holding the scab from the "cluster of blood vessels" on his finger. I had to rock him to sleep before he would let me apply pressure to it. A new scab formed and I knew there was no way we could wait another 2-1/2 weeks to see the dermatologist. Monday morning I called the dermatologist office and begged them to get us an appointment sooner. We moved up a week. One and a half weeks to go...

Daycare was closed unexpectedly on Tuesday. I decided to take Christian to work with me in the morning and take the afternoon off. As soon as we walked into my work, Christian got really excited and smothered is face in his blankie. And of course, the "cluster of blood vessels" began to bleed. Luckily it was only bleeding from the base. With the help of some of my staff, we were able to stop the bleeding after about 20 minutes.

After lunch, we were getting ready to leave. Christian grabbed his coat from the table and nicked his owie with his coat. And blood started to gush. My staff and I tried to get it under control, but after a half hour, it was no closer to clotting. I started to crying. At this point I was so frustrated with the dermatologist office, with the bleeding, with having to do this alone (Richard is driving over the road temporarily). I decided to take Christian to the ER. Since I was by myself the only thing I could do was let it bleed while I drove. There was no way to hold pressure to it or continuously wipe the blood away while I was driving. I cried the entire way to North Memorial Hospital. Thankfully Christian fell asleep during the trip.

I haven't been to the ER since my freak nosebleed of 2003, so I had no idea where to park. I stupidly parked in the ramp and hauled Christian who now had a pool of blood in his neck and his entire right side of his face was covered in blood across the hospital, up two elevators to the ER. He was crying because I had wake him up. It must have looked gruesome.

The triage nurse informed me the ER has valet and I should have pulled in there instead of the ramp. Good to know!

The next 2.5 hours were spent waiting for nurses to reapply bandage after bandage. Two doctors evaluating and trying to decide how to proceed. They called a plastic surgeon and the dermatologist for consult.

These are pictures taken from my phone at the ER. This is just one of the many different style bandages Christian wore. Notice all the blood on his shirt. I threw that shirt away.

I learned the "cluster of blood vessels" had a medical name: hemangioma. In other words: a birthmark. I researched it later and learned he had a strawberry birthmark. Most of the time they appear at birth, but can develop weeks later. Christian's is uncommon because it developed 18 months later and it bleeds. Most do not bleed.

The ER staff could not get it to stop bleeding. A decision was made to cauterize it. They put Christian in a papoose board - which was awful, awful, awful because it held him down. One nurse held is head, the other his feet. I stroked his cheek and told him it was going to be okay. One doctor injected numbing solution in his cheek. The other cauterized it. The smell of burning flesh mixed with Christian's screams was one of the most heart wrenching, horrible situations I've ever been in. I felt helpless and kept telling myself they were helping Christian, not hurting him.

The ER doctor spoke to the dermatologist and was able to get Christian in the next day!!

We left the ER both covered in blood and exhausted. Christian had a light bandage below his eye. Underneath the bandage, the hemangioma was reduced to a charred, flat wound.

The dermatologist confirmed it was a birthmark. He said it looked superficial (some of these can be cavernous and requires laser therapy or surgery). He thought it looked like Christian may have clipped it off when he hit it with his jacket and it may be completely gone. We are to come back in 6 weeks to reevaluate.

Two days later, I was woken in the middle of the night by Christian calling, "Momma! Momma!" I ran into his room. He pointed to his birthmark and said, "I broke! I broke!" The scab had ripped off in his sleep. It wasn't bleeding and actually looked pretty clean.

Since then, it has been healing beautifully. I'll post new pictures when I get a chance to upload them from my camera.