Not something you normally expect for your 10 year old, but we're rolling with it.

When Maya and Sage were born, we were able to tell them apart because of a birthmark Sage has on her scalp. It was flat, and a little bumpy, and no hair grew in that area. So, even in the dark, we'd know which baby we had.

Once her hair covered it, we never thought about it again. Until last month when it changed. It stayed the same size around, but started bulging out all over the place. Plus, it became crusty and oozy.

We took her to the pediatrician, who immediately announced that he had no idea what it was, and sent us to a dermatologist. But, even though he didn't know, he gave me some good medical search terms, and I was able to find out what it likely was.

This was confirmed by the dermatologist today. It's most likely a nevus sebaceous. This birthmark can change during adolescence (ta da!) and can sometimes become malignant (boo!), but that having it go bad is rare.

So, the dermatologist took a biopsy today. If it is a nevus sebaceous, we will likely have surgery to remove it because there's a risk that basal cell carcinomas can form within it. Even if that's the case, there's no concern on the dermatologist's part that the growth is cancerous now, and it doesn't usually become that way before the patient's 20s.

So, really, even though it sounds kind of creepy, it's all good. We'll know well ahead of time if anything's going to be a problem, and if she does need to have it removed it will be an hour or so under local anesthetic, then straight home. No biggie.

We should know in 2 weeks what's going to happen next.

Labels: kids, medical