A beautiful person needs a large beauty mark...

Hi everyone. Well, many of you may have noticed my rather large birthmark the runs up my right arm to my shoulder, neck and chest. It's called a "cafe au lait" spot, as it looks like a big coffee stain. Those of you who don't see me often may have never noticed it because Mommy tends to avoid posting photos where it's really prominent. It has become darker over the summer as I've become a little tanned. Mommy and Daddy have been getting a little concerned because it appears to be growing. So I had a nice visit to my pediatrician last week who refered me to a nice dermatologist. My pediatrician didn't think it was anything to worry about but did comment that it was "rather large". Here's a photo where you can see it really well.

Anyway, the concern is that an abundance of cafe au lait spots is an indicator of a rather nasty genetic disease called neurofibromatosis. I won't go into the details of it other than saying it involves skin tumors, bone growth deformities and learning problems. We haven't mentioned this concern to many people because we didn't want to get people (read: grandparents) worked up if it was nothing. And according to the dermatologist this morning... it's nothing. There's no indicators that my spot is linked to any other disease or disorder. So that's good news. The dermatologist did mentioned that my birthmark is rather rare and they don't see many like mine in size. He even consulted with another dermatologist while we were there. They feel that it probably just appeared to be growing because it's gotten darker in the sun. But everyone seems to agree that I'm just fine, and just blessed with a rather large birthmark. What can I say... a beautiful person needs a rather large beauty mark.