Best Possible Outcome

Hey Carter. Well, our appointment with your little sister last week was absolutely as good as it could have been. It even started out well. We got in early and the doctor and medical resident that we saw were WONDERFUL! They were friendly and reassuring. It was nice.

The diagnosis for little Abby is a Congenital Melanocytic Nevus. Here's the explanation of it according to Wikipedia:

The congenital melanocytic nevus is a type of melanocytic nevus (or mole) found in infants at birth. Occurring in about 1% of infants in the United States, it is located in the area of the head and neck 15% of the time.

The appearance of the congenital melanocytic nevus is similar to those of acquired ones, but are usually larger in diameter and may have excess hair, called hypertrichosis. If large with hypertrichosis, it is called giant hairy nevus.

Microscopically, the congenital melanocytic nevus appears similar to acquired nevi with two notable exceptions. For the congenital nevus, the neval cells are found deeper into the dermis. Also, the deeper neval cells are found along with neurovascular bundles with both surrounding hair follicles, sebaceous glands, and subcutaneous fat.

Many are surgically removed for aesthetics, but larger ones are excised for prevention of cancer. 5 - 15% transform into melanoma.

The lesions are often flat at birth, brown to black in color. They often grow proportionally to the body size as the child matures. As they mature, they often develop thickness, and becomes elevated. Prominent terminal hairs often form, especially after puberty. With maturity, the nevus can have variation in color, and the surface might be textured with growths.

The benign congenital nevi often have characteristics resembling melanomas, often breaking most if not all of the ABCD rules. Dermatoscopic findings of benign congenital nevi are usually benign in nature.

So, it's just a birthmark! We will go back to Denver Children's Hospital once a year to have it looked at. But other than that, we just get to live our lives with a wonderful, happy, healthy baby. As long as it doesn't start growing disproportionately large and she continues hitting her developmental milestones, we just life life!

We are extremely grateful. We couldn't have asked for a better diagnosis. =- )