Now I’m humming ‘Billie Jean’…

Last week I took my kids in for their yearly physical at the Pediatrician’s office.

And to show what good a mom I am, it turns out when they typed into the computer they learned that my oldest hadn’t been there since 2007.  4 years, no check-up.  What?  He’s healthy….. don’t judge me.

So anyways, they were all weighed and measured and the obligatory giggle was had over their growth or lack there of, and then they were poked and prodded a little and given a clean bill of health.

Except when the Doctor is putting his stethoscope on Monster’s chest, he takes a closer look at his neck.  He rubs his hand over a spot a few times, then bends Monster’s head to look closer.

At first, I’m a little puzzled.  Then I remember…. Monster has a white blotch of skin on his neck and shoulder by his collarbone on one side.  It’s been there…. for years I think.  It came around the wax spilling incident and in my head I think I thought that was the cause of it.  But the Doctor dismisses that idea when I say it since Monster never had any wound or injury from the wax that would cause a scar like that.

Besides, it’s not a scar.  At least, as far as he can tell.  It’s a lack of pigment.

Now, my kids are white.  WHITE.  Not like, yes, they are Caucasian white.  Like HOLY CRAP YOU LIGHT UP A ROOM WITH YOUR SKIN white.  Freckles doesn’t tan, his freckles connect.  Drama doesn’t tan, she goes from glow in the dark to lobster in 0.3 seconds.

Actually, Monster is the only one who has even slightly olive skin that can kinda sorta hold a darkness that might resemble a slight tan.

So any other time of year, that spot that is just more white on his skin, even I hardly notice.  And he likes to be inches from my face all. the.  time.

But it is ‘summer’ here now and so Monster has an ever so slight farmers tan.  Everywhere but on this blotch on his neck.  So the doctor noticed.

And he showed minor concern until I told him it had been there for well over a year.  Then he shrugged it off as not a fungal infection and listed a few things it could be, all of which are irreversible and non of which pose a risk to overall health, just appearance.


It could be a ‘reverse freckle‘ (my words, his were longer).  Meaning it’s just an mark on the skin that has no melanin like a freckle that showed up and will just always be there and makes him special(er).

It could be another type of hypopigmentation, that could mean he might end up with more or bigger blotches like this one.  One disorder that causes hypopigmentation – vitiligo.

That’s right.  The thing Michael Jackson had.

Or, it could be something else.  Or nothing at all.  Well, it’s obviously something.  It’s a white blotch.  But that’s about all we really know.  And the diagnostic tool to find out more – wait and see what happens.

Best case scenario – he has this one slightly-more-white-than-the-rest-of-him blotch on his neck for his life.  Worst case – he has a disorder that will cause much of his skin to lose pigment until he has many more noticeable blotches like that one all over his body.

Now, quite honestly I’m not freaking out over this.  It’s not going to hurt him.  It makes him unique(er) than he already is.  I happen to know any extremely cool person with vitiligo.  She’s almost related to me.  But not in the way that means she could have passed this to my child genetically.

I think her spots are cool.  They make her even prettier, and she’s pretty hot to begin with.

But I also think birthmarks are cool.  And I also don’t have any. 

Monster is, well, he’s Monster.  Chances are he will care less about all this.  He doesn’t so far seem to be the kind of kid who cares about what other’s think.  I can already tell that at 3 years old.  I’m sure it might change when he is older, and if this is more than a one time blotch, it might be a bigger concern down the road.  He might hate it when he’s 16 but he’ll hate everything then, anyways.

But up to this point I’m willing to bet 90% of the people who know us didn’t know the pigmently-challenged blotch was even there.  I feel for those who have this sort of skin-disorder combined with dark skin.  I can imagine that would be much, much harder to accept and so I wouldn’t even begin to compare my kid’s loss of pigment to theirs.  Because on my kid, it’s barely there.  That’s the funny thing, my kids aren’t really using their pigment so chances are they are not going to notice it’s missing.

I do think, though, now that a doctor has pointed out the thing I never even cared enough to tell him about, I will probably take him to a dermatologist.  To be safe.  Because while at this point you might be slightly offended that I am making light of this subject,(Sorry, I tend to do that),  I do know that there are things, like the risk of severe burns in the sun and other concerns that a good friend of mine with a similar pigmentless area informed me about, that we’ll have to address and teach him to be vigilant of   
And we are going to have to work even harder to teach him to love the way God made him, even when he gets older and has those time when he wants to blend in and hate those things that make him stand out.  (Though blending in has so far not been Monster’s strong suit anyways and it’s one of the best things about him.)

He was created, formed to be the perfect him, and if that form includes a lack of pigment or a white blotch, I pray he sees that a a mark that proves he is a handmade, one of a kind original.

And in the meantime, I might get him leather jacket and teach him the moves to “Thriller”.
(sorry again)

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