617-355-6000 Catch up on what you may have missed on Thriving last month. Our staff takes a look back at a few of this month’s favorite posts.
A sister’s words: The athlete who couldn’t be tamed by a brain hemorrhage
Carly is a superstar athlete, running a 5:32 mile at the young age of 14. Her heroes include Tom Brady, Malcolm Butler and Boston Children’s neurosurgeon Dr. Ed Smith. After emergency surgery to repair a brain hemorrhage Carly’s career aspirations have shifted, and the Cape Cod track star is now pondering the world of neurosurgery. Read A sister’s words: The athlete who couldn’t be tamed by a brain hemorrhage.
Tuberous sclerosis: Clinical trial may be what halted Charlotte’s seizures
Four-year-old Charlotte has a rare genetic condition called tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). When medications failed to control her seizures, her family turned to Dr. Mustafa Sahin and Dr. Jurriaan Peters for answers. She qualified for a clinical trial that was focused on the TSC defect. Today she is virtually seizure-free and is starting kindergarten this fall. Read Tuberous sclerosis: Clinical trial may be what halted Charlotte’s seizures.
Ask the expert: Can kids get melanoma?
How much sun is too much? Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, clinical director of the Solid Tumor Center at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, answers your family’s melanoma questions. Read Ask the expert: Can kids get melanoma.
Never say never: Gymnast with brachial plexus soars
17-year-old Julia whips around the uneven bars with apparent ease and effortlessly flips across the spring floor. It’s hard to believe that the captain of the Winthrop high school gymnastics team was diagnosed with brachial plexus birth palsy as a baby. Dr. Peter Waters cared for her from infancy and completed surgery to improve her range of motion and help her become the active teenager she is today. Read Never say never: Gymnast with brachial plexus soars.
Parent Q&A: Helping a daughter through breast reduction surgery
ABC News Videos | ABC Entertainment News
From unwanted attention to physical symptoms to dress shopping, her large breasts, or macromastia, made many things difficult during Mackenzie Langan’s high school years. The 18-year-old recently underwent breast reduction surgery to drop from a G cup to a C size. Her experience was profiled on ABC’s Nightline, and her mother reflects on the experience. Read Parent Q&A: Helping a daughter through breast reduction surgery.
Ask the expert: Can kids get melanoma?
My 16-year-old daughter loves to tan. Should we be worried about skin cancer? – Sunseeker’s dad
Although melanoma is very rare in children, the incidence of childhood and adolescent melanoma has increased on average 2 percent per year since 1973. Thankfully, however, the incidence rate has started to decrease again in the last few years. The biggest increase has been in girls ages 15-19, possibly because girls are more likely than boys to sunbathe and use tanning beds.
While melanoma is the least common type of skin cancer in adults, skin cancer in children is almost always melanoma. Because melanoma often appears differently in children than in adults, doctors and parents sometimes overlook it or misdiagnose it as a different skin problem.
We spoke an expert from Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, to learn what parents should know about melanoma in children. …
Artificial tanners at high risk for melanoma
Summer’s almost here, but if you live in Boston you might not realize it. With the exception of a few bright afternoons, cold and rain have dominated June’s forecasts, which isn’t unusual considering New England’s somewhat schizophrenic weather patterns.
But if the tanned appearance of many young Bostonians was your only gauge of summer, you might think the city has been 80 degrees and sunny since December. Many New England teenagers, especially girls, use artificial tanning beds prior to beach season to build up a “healthy base tan,” before that first trip to the beach. While a preseason bronze may lessen beach anxiety for the self-conscious sunbather, it also makes the tanner 75 percent more likely to develop melanoma than non-tanning bed users according to a study released in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.