"Will the drugs change my baby's personality?" Reply from the Doctor: "I wouldn't have thought so but it is a trial drug"

Our second appointment came for Tuesday 1st November to attend a drug trial at Birmingham Children's Hospital (BCH) and after that a quick visit to the eye infirmary to check eye sight and possible eye defects that might come from the Hemangioma.

The day started off as before, out of the house at 7am then on the tram and into Birmingham for a 9am appointment.  Before being admitted we were given an opportunity to ask questions regarding the procedure and all the potential problems and successes associated with it.  Now if anyone knows me I am thorough and I am always keen to get all the facts before making a decision so in my little black and pink Oxford notebook I had about 35 questions in total.  These varied from will it go completely to will this affect her bowel movements (I needed to be sure just in case it turns it radioactive green and I start to panic).  I also asked (don't know why) "Will the drugs change my baby's personality?" Reply from the Doctor: "I wouldn't have thought so but it is a trial drug", I was not ready for that............ In the UK the propranolol trials had only been going for a period of 1 year with only 43 cases (my little angel would be case 44). 

It is still an experimental method of treating Strawberry Birthmarks or Hemangiomas.  I buried my head in my hands and shock from side to side while my husband (the level headed one who is also very cool, calm and collected) said yeah that's fine 43 success stories that's great. It doesn't do anything to their nappies by the way in case you were wondering.

Iliana was admitted to the Medical Daycare unit at BCH where she was give an 8ml dose of Propranolol (apologies but I spelt it incorrectly last time) at 11am and then monitored every 20 minutes or so.  This included the funniest attempts to take her blood pressure we had ever seen.  In the end the best way to do it was for me to hold her leg down as they put a child's cuff on her lower leg and press the machine button. The blood sugar level tests were hugely less funny considering they sliced her foot but like a true pro she just flinched a little and looked at me with a "yeah whatever I'm tough" look.

The trail ended with us having a prescription of one months supply of Propranolol with a few syringes and told to check in with our babysitting paediatrician at our local hospital in two weeks time.  Okay so I was happy that nothing happened to our daughter but it was still a bit of a worry that only 43 children had been treated with this experimental drug meant for treating anxiety and heart conditions. Side effects that we had to look out for were drowsiness and not waking after a nap!!!

A bit of a history about the trial........... A child (don't know location sorry) was born with both a heart condition and strawberry birthmark.  When they began treatment for his heart condition (with Propranolol) they found accidentally that the strawberry birthmark had reduced in size and eventually disappeared completely therefore identifying the drug as a great treatment for those birthmarks in awkward positions.

So that was it for now. Off we went with baby and drugs in hand.

Thanks for reading xxx