Christian

A few months ago I noticed a spot on Christian’s face. It was white, and very faint. I remember the first couple of times I saw it would be in the morning and I thought he just didn’t wipe his face good after breakfast. Then one weekend Michael noticed it. We didn’t really know what it was, I just said we should keep an eye on it and make sure it didn’t change. Now that summer is here, he is outside everyday either playing and/or swimming. He has started to tan over his whole body but this one spot on his face doesn’t seem to want to tan. I figured it was time to take him to the doctor and see what they said. I thought about taking him to the dermatologist but then realized if it’s nothing the pediatrician will know what to do, and if all else fails they will send us to one. So about 2 weeks ago I took him to the doctor. I saw the PA in the office, and she gave me a list of about 2-3 things she thought it could be but wasn’t sure. She said Dermatology was hard to diagnose and she thought we should go see one. At that time his doctor came in and thought it could just be a fugal, (I know nice right?) thing, and prescribed a cream for it. She said if it was it would help, it not it wouldn’t hurt but to use it until we could get in to see the dermatologist. I called them that afternoon (Friday) and they were able to get him in to be seen on Monday. I looked up the things the doctor said it might be, and honestly none of them seem horrible, maybe just weird looking.

That Monday we headed to the doctor to see what she thought he had. She took one look and knew what it was. She asked a few general questions and then took us into another room where there were no windows. She turned the lights off and used a black light over his body. She said even though we didn’t see any other spots with our eyes the light would show them. He had the one spot on his face right next to his mouth, and a very small one behind his left ear. She said she wanted to scrape it and look at it under the microscope. Christian did great, she never let him see the actual blade she used, just a slide for the microscope. It only took about a minute and then she went to look at it. She came back and said there wasn’t anything abnormal about it, but he did have a condition called Vitiligo. An autoimmune disease that eats the pigment in his skin. She asked if anyone had a thyroid problem, which I do as well as a few other people in my family. She said that sometimes there is a link between the two and she wanted to have him tested. She gave us a new steroid cream to use for two weeks, and the follow up with an antibiotic that would hopefully stimulate the pigment to re-grow. We have just completed the two week steroid and have now started to cream to help re-grow the pigment. I notice last week a small spot on his right side, and have started the cream there as well. There is a chance that it will spread, and a chance that the cream doesn’t work. Thank-fully we are very faired skinned, (as I told the doctor, I guess it’s a good thing to be pasty!!) and normally you would not see the spots. However since it is summer time, and he is outside he will darken, but those spots will not ever tan. We just have to be super cautious with the sun block on those areas and apply really good since they have no pigment they are more easier to burn. He doesn’t even notice the spots are there unless we are starring at them. They don’t itch, or irritate him so that’s good. We just pray that the new cream will work, and that the spots won’t spread to other parts of his body. We go back to the dermatologist next month for a follow up, and we are hoping for a good report!