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What to do when doctors pass you off?
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lilliangil posted:
My grandson is 15 mo & has a cherry angioma on his lower eyelid. One day, he awoke from a nap and was covered in dried blood from having scratched it. Now it bleeds a lot 4 or more times a day and takes 20 min or more to stop. My DD took him to his Pediatrician, who referred him to a Dermatologist, who referred him to an Ophthalmologist, who referred him to a Plastic Surgeon. The Plastics guy can't even see him for a month, and even then there's no guarantee he won't just try to palm him off on somebody else!

In the meantime he bleeds a lot and my DD is concerned about blood loss. She's noticed that he's drinking a lot more, but his naps have also doubled! She thinks he's having trouble with balance and is concerned the blood loss has weakened him.

After 3 doctors, they've been told "Yep, it's an angioma all right! Leave it alone and it'll heal by itself." (Tell a 15 month old that!) They've also been told there's a powder that will stop bleeding and is safe to use so near his eye, but it's not available locally. The Ped's nurse told them to order some, but in the meantime, take a calcium tablet and scrape it to make a powder. (It helps but it still takes time.)

Apparently, angiomas can be cauterized with a lazer, but because of his age he'd need a general anestetic and no one wants to deal with that.

What do you do when doctors don't want to help? My DD was in tears last night and was talking about canceling their trip here for Christmas because travelling is stressful enough, but with a bleeding baby...!
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heather7257 responded:
Maybe he could wear an eye patch until it heals? Or perhaps wearing hand mitts when he sleeps would make it so he couldn't cause as much damage from scratching?


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