Molluscum

Last Wednesday was pretty exciting and started what became a busy and fun weekend. Tuesday I took MJ to the doctor to check on some more bumps on his face. I knew he had Molluscum from a previous visit where I asked about one bump on his cheek. It was a small skin colored bump (like a pimple or wart maybe) that had been there since April. Molluscum is a skin condition caused by a poxvirus. It is not harmful, but causes small bumps to appear on the skin. Each bump can take a few months to disappear. The whole condition usually will disapear without treatment in 6-18 months. Treatment is to remove each bump by heat/freeze/scrap which is not reccommended for kids and may scar. I was fine with the one bump, and then learned that the 20 new bumps on his face were more Molluscum. I also learned that it is contagious and Joey has it too! (Although, once you have it you are immune to it like the chicken pox too, so it appears that Mario and I are not affected). The doctor recommended that we see a dermatologist since it was spreading kind of quickly. I was suprised that I was able to get an apointment the next day!

So Wednesday at 8:30 we checked and the dermatologist said the same things but offered a cream that we could use, though it's particular use for this might not be approved by the FDA. I wouldn't treat Joey's bumps anyway b/c he is so young. But I've decided not to use the cream on MJ either. The skin-colored bumps aren't as noticeable, and the red ones kind of look like pimples. But appearantly those are ones that the body's immune system is fighting and they will go away more quickly. It's been 6 days now, and they are looking better. Mario theorized that since it's an immune system thing that Joey's might go away faster since he is nursing. That seems to be the case since I've only noticed Joey's bumps for a week and his are definitely going away more quickly. It would be weird to have MJ drink breastmilk from a cup, wouldn't it?

Wednesday afternoon we took off for Charlottesville, VA since Mario was doing a recruiting event at Darden. I took the boys to hang out at Clark Elementary where I used to teach. It was very nice to catch up with old friends. We stayed at georgous hotel that was really not meant to have kids... the Clifton Inn. But it was only 1 night, and we survived.

We got back Thursday and made it in to volunteer. And then Friday, the Kazas came over to hang out for the morning and we took our crew shopping at SAMs together. It went pretty well. I don't have any pictures of it, but I had Joey, MJ, and Peter in the cart together, and they seemed pretty happy. Here are a few pictures of MJ and Peter sharing books (they are playing so well together now!) and it seems Joey and Catherine like to hang out too!

In this first picture, Joey is eating in his stroller (which is so multifunctional when I go on trips!) and you can see one of the molluscum on his forehead from last Wed. The last picture shows MJs red molluscum on his left cheek. He has several on his right cheek that are skin-colored and not noticeable really.