I have a question and a comment. I've learned a bit about "hemangiomas'' because my daughter has one in her ankle. Apparently now they call them venous malformations. Don't think there's a separate category, but I could be wrong. My understanding is that they never become malignancies, though they can grow over time and cause some problems.

So, MrsD, I was wondering how you were managing with your foot situation. We've been delaying having my daughter treated because she's had very few problems so far, but we're concerned about where it might leave her down the road. She's only 4. It surfaced when she first started getting on her feet at about 8 months.

I'd also comment there seems to be potentially some ignorance among doctors and surgeons about these things, or at least a lot of different opinions. The first two docs my daughter saw were tumor specialists and their response was, hey, let's just cut it out. But when we found a practice that specializes in these things, we were told that it would most likely grow back in a year. Better to use serial sclerotherapy to break it down, they said.

Doesn't sound like you'd be able to ignore one in your spine, right?