Has anyone else experienced a visible halo of color around where the vitiligo is spreading? When my son Dylan got vitiligo it was, I believe, the result of a reaction to severe heat. His spots did not start small and grow, rarther they appeared rather quickly. On the outer edge of his vitiligo spots were redish halo's of stippled color that looked like thousands of tiny burst capilaries. Kind of like you may have seen on someone who had thrown up very violently, appearing like very small pin prick sized red dots in massive numbers around thier eyes and cheecks etc. Dot matrix bruising if you will...
He had this type of stippling effect all over his face, neck, chest, and upper back...but most especially prevelant specifically right around the immediately aquired white spots, and mostly on his chin/upper neck area and around one eye more than the other.
As the vitiligo on his chin recently began to spread (nearly 3 mos. later) we saw the same halo type effect again. This time it was not a wide spread reaction like before, just the small progression of the vitiligo closing the gap between the other spots that were previously on his lower chin/upper neck area.
I have not heard of this type or visible response to the spreading from anyone's posts. It looks like there is a small scale war being waged under the surface of his skin as the spreading is occuring. Then it fades around the vitiligo spot.
I am not sure if it is the vitiligo that is the cause of that or if it his body's way of trying to fight off the vitiligo from spreading...that doesn't make much sense though because that would mean that his body was fighting that vitiligo that was caused from his body fighting his own body...! Hahahaha, wow.
Please see the pictures for examples of the "stippling halo effect". Pic #1 is the day that his vit started. pic #2 is of his chin ~3 mos after the original onset and shows the spreading to the area between his previous chin spots.
I am very interested in hearing if this type of thing has happened to anyone else, perhaps this is just typical becuause he is fair skinned??? What if it it really isn't vitiligo, maybe it is something else damaging his pigment in another way???
Replies
Yes I have noticed halos around freckles on my hands mostly. The halos on my skin just circle an area of a freckle then the freckle will be gone in a few days to a few weeks. I think that it is great that you used the word halo because that is what I call it too!
I have seen this halo effect on my vit spots. In my case however this happens before the vit spots start to re pig. The outer boarder looks dark brown. My Derm also mentioned this halo effect to me in the very first appointment ....said it would happen before pigmenting. Have a look at my pics on my group page, Waterloo Region Vitiligo Friends. If you want I can take better (close up) pics of this halo effect on my vit spots that are starting to re-pig. I would also double check that it is in fact vit.
Hi Jodie! My name is Alysia. My son Dylan is 8 and started getting vitiligo around Sept of last year. His spread very quickly. Started off around his left eye, in a similar pattern of your sons (via pics on his slideshow). Cool slideshow by the way :) His eyelashes turned white, now the vitiligo has circled his eye and some on the right now. He gets a raised red border around his also. I read its called (Marginal inflammatory vitiligo) I havent asked the Dr yet though. It seems to come and go. He will rub at it. It shows up along the area where the vitiligo is spreading. Mostly his eye. Havent noticed much redness on his forehead or nose. It seems to go away when things slow down. When we see the Derm next, Ill be sure to get his thoughts.
Seems that our boys has alot in common, including a great name! :) When did Dylan first get his vitiligo? How is he doing?
Alysia
~ Jodie
I see this is an old post, but it helps me. Because, tho' I've had vitiilgo for over 12 years, I noticed this exact inflammation around a few spreading patches this past week. No itching, barely can be felt to the touch. Thought it might be even be cancer or something.... lol. But I've been under lots of exhausting stress lately. Glad to see the marks seem to fade and come and go. Glad I found this post, maybe it will help out some others too.
Picture 2 -- ~3 mos later at the edge of the recent spreading of his vitiligo. These marks are not as wide spread or severe as before