The Parents' eGuide to Pilomatricoma is here!

Finally!  It's exactly what I would have wanted when I was starting our daughter's pilomatricoma journey... 

If your child has been diagnosed or you suspect he or she might have this benign hair follicle tumor, The Parents' eGuide to Pilomatricoma is a great resource that takes you step-by-step through the process, including the 13 questions you MUST ask your child's dermatologist and surgeon.  Click on the Buy Now link to the right to get the eGuide emailed to you!

It's baaacckkk...

Nine years later, we're back!

You remember this face, right?  Well, she's all grown up and just turned 12 years old.  In February, about nine years from when we first took her to the dermatologist for a "blackhead" under her right eye, I spied what looked like a blackhead on the left side of her nose. It took several hours for it to dawn on me that this could be another pilomatricoma :(  It's larger than a normal blackhead and looks dark under the skin as well.  Back to Dr. Kasten at University of Michigan pediatric plastic surgery, the doctor who operated on her face so well in 2010.

A May 2019 visit to Dr. Kasten had mixed results.  He believed this COULD be just a clogged pore this time (mom's gut says no, but he IS the doctor...)  He tried to manually express it (AKA he squeezed it) and honestly, it looks way worse now.  I'm having flashbacks to exactly 9 years ago when the spot that seemed like nothing swelled up to something horrid.  It's been 10 days since the visit to Dr. Kasten and you can see the progression from before and after:

New Pilomatricoma in a new spot?

One week after seeing Dr. Kasten

10 days after seeing Dr. Kasten

Needless to say, we are not thrilled with the progression of this spot after our visit.  We have a surgery date set for July 29 (after school is out and camps are through), and are waiting out the inflammation and hoping it doesn't turn infected.  And perhaps, Dr. Kasten will have been right and this will just go away (again, Mom's gut says no).

July 22, 2019--
We made it to surgery date and sure enough, it's still there (Mom is always right! :)  The surgery at U-M Mott Children's Hospital with Dr. Kasten was a breeze, she was under sedation but not with a breathing tube so recovery was pretty quick.  He said she would be his first patient to ever have TWO pilomatricomas in a lifetime!   Lucky us :(

Here she is before surgery, and at the hospital with the IV, then the "after" with three small stitches.

February 2020--She's look great and no noticeable scar!  Hopefully the third time is NOT the charm with this skin condition!

Seven years later...still beautiful

Hello everyone!  If you're new here, start reading this blog from the oldest post forward...it will tell the story. If you're here for an update, I'm happy to share it!  Tess is now 10 years old and her scar is not visible at all.  In a few years (or sooner--help me, Lord) she'll be wearing makeup and I'm happy to say she won't even need to use make up to cover up her facial scar because you just can't see anything!  And it's been invisible for years.  So please don't be afraid of the surgery and scarring your beautiful child's face...if you get a great plastic surgeon and follow the guidelines in the Parent's Guide to Pilomatricoma (button to purchase at the right!) you'll end up with a still-perfect child :)

   xoxox  ~Kelly

Helpful Pilomatricoma Links--help me fill this in!

As I've said below, I suspect there isn't much else out there for parents of children with pilomatricomas that need removal.  If you've found useful sources of information please share with our community in the comments section below.

A year and a half post-op, and an invitation to you...

Two pictures of our darling daughter a year and a half post-op.  You can see in the first picture that her scar is visible if the light is right, but sometimes you can't see it at all (second picture).

We haven't had any more problems with the pilomatricoma and I probably won't post news about my daughter (unless something reappears!) But this blog gets a ton of hits so I suspect there isn't much else out there for parents of children with a pilomatricoma facing removal surgery.  Please share your pilomatricoma story in the comments section so visitors can learn from you and we can enrich our small community!

Four months post surgery

Her scar looks quite good, can't say enough about the plastic surgeon at U-M who did the work:

Removal Surgury Done!

We are on the good side of this ordeal!  Our daughter had her removal surgery three weeks ago.  This picture was taken one day after surgery, when the tape was still covering the incision.  She did great, the procedure was done by a pediatric plastic surgeon (Dr. Steve Kasten at U-M Mott--Loved him!)  Dr. Kasten did a GREAT job on the scar, now that the tape is removed the area is still red (and may remain that red for up to a year after the trauma from the infection swelling) but the scar itself is less than a centimeter and almost invisible to the naked eye.  AMAZING!  My visions of a Frankenstein-style scar on her face were completely off.  Three weeks post-operation, her face looks great and after they removed the stitches (a painless tug on a nylon thread) we were released from even having to go back to check on the incision.  The biopsy of the mass actually showed neither pilomatricoma NOR a cyst--just a dermal fibriosis, or a bit of tissue living somewhere it shouldn't under the skin and causing problems.  Strange.  So, life goes on, and hopefully THIS is the worst thing that ever happens to our child--we'd be so lucky!