Shooting lasers at my children…
Well, when our most recent daughter Claire was born, she had what they call a Port Wine Stain. Really good technical term huh? Anyway, it is a birthmark about the size of a silver dollar on the side of her head. As something that large could cause her turmoil later in life, we wanted to take care of it. We went to the best laser surgeon in Chicagoland, and today Claire had her first laser treatment. Most kids see most of the birthmark disappear within 8-10 treatments, and some in as little as 2-4.
Basically what happens is that the doctor “paints” the bitrhmark with a laser. It heats the skin to around 150 degrees. Basically damaging it enough that the body’s own natural healing process takes over. The laser pretty much fools the body into fixing itself. If the laser heated it to 200 degrees there could be permanent damage, but if you keep it to 150, the body works with it. It’s a pretty cool thought.
Claire screamed bloody murder throughout the 30 second procedure, but then was fine as soon as it was over and she was back in Jen’s arms. So, we’ll see how treatment one goes. Treatment two is in March. It’s just weird having people shoot a laser at your child’s head. Just seems wrong 🙂
January 26, 2004 @ 8:38 am
Shoosting lasers at your kid? Is that like taunting a cat with a laser pointer? no- probably not….
We’ll be going through some of the same with my 7 mo old daughter. She has a little dark splotch on her upper lip that may or may not be a problem later on. Sometimes, these things fade by year 1, but hers has darkened ever so slightly since birth and so we’re off to consult with the Plastic Surgeon at Childrens in Columbus next week or so. I’ll be interested in hearing how your daughers treatments go, so keep us posted.
Cheers!
Jerry
January 26, 2004 @ 4:09 pm
Even after one treatment the stain seems lighter. It’s pretty amazing. Hopefully we’ll end up in the 3-4 treatments and it’s gone camp!
-Grey