A few days later Brigitte made an appointment with her professor, Dr. Dobric, from the University in Zagreb who is dermatologist specialised in histology. That is, if we did the biopsy in our hospital, they would send the skin to Dr. Dobric who would analyse it and send the results back here. That's why we wished him to see Krsto first, what he actually did. He also confirmed it may be UP but did not suggest the biopsy as Krsto feels OK and is a happy little boy, and knowing 100% he has UP would change nothing.

Krsto overslept the trip which took 5,5 hours (from 2 in the night till 7:30 in the morning). Although it was hot in the sun, we spent most of the time in a shade where we found a nice breeze all day long. The worst was from noon till 4 PM when it was awfully hot. Krsto got a swimming pool into which we put the seawater and he seemed to like it. Twice we noticed some reddish skin on his head (scalp) and upper arm, but Brigitte said it must be some kind of an allergy to the sun and not connected with UP.

It was OK until our last 2-3 days (out of 7, as we stayed there) when he couldn't eat properly; was it because of the heat or something else, I can't tell. It's not that he didn't eat at all, no - he just didn't eat his regular amounts of food. Eating normalised a few days after we returned home.

It was our unlucky guess when to go there because it was a Krk fair which lasted for 3 days. It included huge amounts of food (whatever you like - from pork to lamb to fish to ... you name it, they have it), toys, clothes, shoes, paintings, sculptures, jewellery, etc. etc. The worst were the nights - there was music all night long, and our autocamp was just opposite the loudspeakers. It was really hard to fall asleep these days. The only important thing for Krsto was just to have his mother next to him and he slept well.

We walked through the pine forest which covers, let's say, 50 percent of autocamp. Krsto mostly liked it because it was never boring there as somebody always does something interesting.

As far as we could notice, no new spots appeared while we were there and we didn't see Krsto having any kind of health trouble, itching or something. Luckily, there are no mosquitoes in Krk; we left those monsters back home. Wasps flied around looking for a juice or a fruit, were boring but nothing we couldn't manage. Krsto wasn't exposed to direct sun; however, we used sunprotective cream with factor 15 and he got a nice tan during the vacation.

So, we went home and did blood tests (which were normal) and EKG (normal as well). Those tests were necessary because Krsto had to go to CT which is done under the general anesthesia (if it is done to a child). As you probably know, it might be hazardous because drugs used during anesthesia can evoke potentially fatal reactions in a masto patient (Krsto has UP).

A week later we returned to a Clinic. We brought an excerpt (regarding anesthesia and masto patients) from the material Joe Palk sent hoping it might help doctors during CT. Although it was all arranged, the next morning we found out an anesthesiologist who was supposed to be there went home (?!?) and some other doctor came and he had no idea how to deal with a masto patient. It was quite unpleasant for Krsto as he wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything before a CT was done; and they didn't want to do a scan! We were told we should return some other day as if it was simple as that to travel more than 250 km with a small child, to make him starve for hours, to make him quiet and be still in a hospital … I don't know about other children, but it is impossible for me to explain such things to a 15 months old child.

It took them more than an hour to think over and take Krsto in. We, of course, had to stay in a waiting room thinking what was going on behind the closed door and praying everything will turn out good. Can't tell what worried me more - how will he survive anesthesia or what will they find out of that growth. Only Brigitte knows how she felt as she is an anesthesiologist and she knew what they might be doing to our son; she said "they must be choking him" (by the means of a halothan, a gas they use to put a patient asleep as they were afraid to use another drugs). Some 20-25 minutes later they brought him out and he was awake, dizzy a bit but alive! Thanks God! Krsto didn't suffer from any adverse reaction at the moment of anesthesia or ever after; I guess it's because they didn't apply any drugs but a gas.

A radiologist was so kind and he came out to tell us what he saw - he saw scan pictures at the screen but it was too fast to diagnose anything so he asked us to return later that day.

We did return - after he saw pictures he made, he told us it is a growth that doesn't have any connection with a bone or an eye - it "floats" in between and he thinks it might be a dermoid cyst. It is "something" Krsto was born with and it started growing; by now, it is some 4-5 mm in diameter. It can't have a malign form, which is the most important to me!

Having such news we went to dr. Ivekovic. She first asked who told us such things, and when we told her, she replied: "Oh, OK, if it was him, I believe that". However, she thinks it might grow further and push an eye to a side which might be harmful for Krsto's sight. Therefore a surgery is essential to make sure it won't happen. As anesthesiologists told her there must be a time space of 3 months before a child is taken into a general anesthesia for the next time, we have to call her at the beginning of a June to make another appointment. Until then, we'll watch the growth carefully to react sooner if necessary.

Another excerpt from Joe Palk's material says:

"(…) During our study of pediatric mastocytosis, the synthetic narcotic meperidine was a constituent of a sedative used prior to diagnostic and investigational procedures. This synthetic narcotic has been reported to be safely used in patients with mastocytosis. One child with urticaria pigmentosa who received the medication developed extensive bullae without other symptoms of mast cell degranulation 2h after receiving the meperidine-containing sedative. As we could not rule out an adverse reaction to the synthetic narcotic, we no longer routinely use it but now use intravenously administered lorazepam, a short-acting benzodiazepam. This sedative has not resulted in any adverse reactions to date in our patient population. We believe that routine use of narcotics should be avoided if possible in this patient population. If they must be used, caution and close observation are essential. (…)"

Anesthesiologist who put Krsto asleep told us they don't have either meperidine or lorazepam, so we will have to order it (lorazepam, that is) from abroad. I guess it won't be a problem, no matter what it costs.

It was a Monday in mid-October when we first returned to Zagreb. Krsto felt quite well during the weekend, but he caught some cold and started sneezing on Sunday evening. Anesthesiologist refused to take him to the surgery so we were forced to return home and wait for him to be healthy again.

The surgery was done four weeks later – it was Friday, November 12^th. The weather was awful – snow which started falling during the night paralysed the traffic so, instead about 8 o’clock AM, medical stuff appeared almost an hour later. We brought Krsto downstairs and left him with a nurse who prepared him for the surgery. Almost hour and a half later, anesthesiologist brought Krsto back – he was still dizzy, but when he recognised us, never wanted to sleep again. Instead, he was rather sitting and watching another kid playing around.

What could we notice? He had a tiny bandage over his left eye, but he still could see under it. In a vein on an ankle was a needle that was used for infusion during the surgery. They said the wound was bleeding much so he got a lot of blood. Furthermore, we were told everything was OK (he was again put asleep by halothan) and all the time oxygen level was normal, just like his heart beat. Dr. Ivekovic thought the cyst was removed completely and the patohistological examination should show nothing strange.

We stayed in the hospital for another 4 hours waiting for Krsto to completely wake up. We were not forced to stay there as Bridget is an anesthesiologist and she know how to deal with such patients in a case of an urgency.

In spite of bad weather, we returned home – it took us more than four hours to pass 120 km; it was still snowing so we reached our hometown at 7 PM. Krsto was much too exhausted and overslept the complete journey.

A month later we finally got the results – it really was a dermoid cyst and it was completely removed, including its envelope (if some of it stayed inside the body, it might develop into something “strange” again).

We used two types of a cream – first (mild) one didn’t help much, so we started using the one containing kortikosteroids (sp?). It was successful and the allergy disappeared.