Rock Baby is booked to go into hospital on Monday as soon as I rang up this morning and confirmed the appointment I felt sick and I have a strange feeling which just won’t go away.
I also feel guilty as to what I am about to put her through. She is going in to hospital to start treatment to remove her strawberry birthmark which is on her forehead. She has to have blood tests, ECG’s, organ function tests etc to check that she is able to cope with the medication.
They then administer a drug called propranolol at 2pm, the first half hour is the most critical to see if she has a reaction. If she is ok she is given more doses at 6pm and 10pm then 6am and 10am the following day. If all is ok she will be allowed home and then we continue the treatment three times per day until the birthmark disappears. They estimate worst case scenario it can take up to 9 months.
Apparently the results are almost immediate with a reduction in the birthmark as soon as the next day. Propranolol has been used for up to 40 years and is more commonly used for treating high blood pressure.
We are very lucky in that our local hospital has become one of the first in the country to have a paediatrician that specialises in this treatment for birthmarks as the usual route is laser removal. However with Laser there is a risk that the laser will not go deep enough to the roots of the haemangioma.
We have obviously weighed up the pros and cons of this treatment and agonised whether to go ahead and after two consultations with the specialist we decided to have the treatment. I am obviously worried in case something should go wrong and there is no medical reason for her to have it and it is more cosmetic. I think we have made the right decision and I just hope it all goes ok.
