Nevus Update 2010

Finally, our appointment with a pediatric dermatologist. Of course it had to come at a time when we are all sick. But we powered through anyway knowing that rescheduling would mean more months of waiting. The trip to Seattle was easy. The pass was a little snowy and crazy but we only had to stop once (a Domrese family record) and we made it there rather quickly. We stayed with Dan's cousin, whom the kids love. With all four kids sick I'm pretty sure I got less than an hour of total sleep and then spent the entire day sick and exhausted myself. AUGH!

As for the appointment, it went really well. Turns out that his nevus can be classified as intermediate in size. This is a big deal. It means his chances of cancer are actually one in 60. The same as the chance of you or I getting skin cancer. They said that as far as a nevus is concerned, his is about as uniform and consistent as one can hope for.

What questions did I ask? 1) Satellites (moles) on the brain? MRI to look? The doctor stated that usually this is recommended IF the nevus is large AND there are more than 20 satellites over the body. Joshua does have satellites but they are so small they are more like moles. And he does not have more than 20, so no need for an MRI. 2) Sweat glands? Many times there are not sweat glands attached to a nevus. I was concerned that we needed to watch for overheating, etc. Doctor said not true. Phew. 3) Strength of skin. Again, sometimes the skin is weaker. Not true again.

So, overall, the appointment was great. He would not give me direction as to whether or not to remove it, but with the knowledge that his chance of skin cancer is not any higher than a normal person, it seems rather absurd to go through a year-long painful process of removal. We stick to the wait and see method.

After the appointment, instead of meeting up with some family, we opted to get our sick little family home as quickly as possible. This proved to be a good choice. The ride home was miserable. The kids were miserable and fever-ish and exhausted. Did I say that they were miserable yet? We were all miserable! Here are a few snapshots of the drive home. The kids were either a) obsessed with the windmills (you'll see Molly studying them and drawing pictures) or b) sleeping. I chose not to take pictures of them crying. That would've been a novel!