Our 3 year old boy, Gideon, had what we thought was a wart show up in November of last year, it was in the very center of his cheek. We thought it was a pimple, but it kept growing and was soon about 4 mm wide and tall and raised. We took him to the pediatrician, who tried to burn it off like a wart. Instead of turning black and falling off, it turned bright red, bled a lot and grew fast – it was 7 mm wide and 7 mm tall and 3mm above the skin when they sent us to the dermatologist. Derm did shave biopsy and those are the meausrements of what they removed three weeks ago.
Our 3 year old boy, Gideon, had what we thought was a wart show up in November of last year, it was in the very center of his cheek. We thought it was a pimple, but it kept growing and was soon about 4 mm wide and tall and raised. We took him to the pediatrician, who tried to burn it off like a wart. Instead of turning black and falling off, it turned bright red, bled a lot and grew fast – it was 7 mm wide and 7 mm tall and 3mm above the skin when they sent us to the dermatologist. Derm did shave biopsy and those are the meausrements of what they removed three weeks ago. They sent it to pathology. It has grown to be the same size before shaving it in just three weeks and we see growth daily!
Pathology came back as unclear between atypical spitz nevi and malignant melanoma. I understand it is difficult to tell. They sent it back for further testing.
In the meantime, we were referred to an ENT to do a WLE (Wide Local Excision). We are being told the cut will be about three inches long (on his face) and will leave a good scar – it will go fairly deep too, since they predict that the mole goes deep.
The doctors we are seeing are not specialist with melanoma, and I understand juvenile melanoma is really rare. We live near Portland, OR and about three hours from Seattle, WA. We have family in Michigan and Minnesota and are willing to travel wherever to find the best treatment. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Also, what questions should I be asking the docs? Should they be doing a sentinal node biopsy? What else should I be asking?
There isn't much out there for kids – so any help is really appreciated!
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