Page 7 - Healthbeat June 2017

Light therapy may also be used, but the process is lengthy, and facilities that offer the treatments are hard to come by, he added.
Other potential treatments, such as stripping all pigment from the skin or experimental skin grafting, are unpopular and invasive, he said, adding that the simplest option is to simply cover the affected areas with makeup.
“If you look at it from a medical standpoint, it’s more of a cosmetic problem because it’s not usually associated with anything internally,” he said, adding that vitiligo has a greater impact on people’s mental health than physical health. “A problem like that that’s just out there and can be seen like that really affects — especially kids — emotionally.”
STRUGGLES WITH SELF-ESTEEM
Carter’s first white spot appeared on his temple when he was 5. His parents noticed the mark during a beach vacation in August 2014, the summer before he began kindergarten.
“I thought I had cut his hair and maybe scratched him,” said Carter’s father, Jermaine Blanchard. “Then it just gained ground overtime.”
Within a few months, white spots had spread across Carter’s face, and White diagnosed him that December. Neither parent had any previous experience with vitiligo.
“It was concerning, mainly because we didn’t know anything about it yet,” Adcock said. “It was concerning because we were told there’s no cure, there’s no treatment, and there’s literally nothing we can do to stop it. It was just such a fast progression that it was scary to see him transform so quickly.”
She added that she was worried about how the condition would affect Carter’s self-esteem — with good reason.
“I felt bad about my skin,” Carter said. “I didn’t want to go to school.”
Although his classmates did not tease him about his skin, they were curious and asked a question Carter still hears on a daily basis: “What’s that on your face?”
“I would pick him up from kindergarten, and the first thing he would say when we got in the car was, ‘I hate my face. I don’t want to go back to school,’” Adcock said. “And then we’d get in the house, and he’d go through every room, and the first thing he would do is look in the mirror, so I thought I was going to have to take down all the mirrors in the house.”
Despite the struggles, Carter’s parents decided against pursuing any treatment aimed at reducing the marks.
“One, we don’t want to give him false hope,” she said. “Two, we don’t want to communicate that there’s anything wrong that needs fixing because it doesn’t need to be fixed. It’s just who he is.”
A FURRY FRIEND WITH A FAMILIAR FACE
One day, while Adcock was browsing Facebook, she saw a photo of a black Lab with white marks around his eyes. Although she did not know it at the time, she soon learned that Rowdy, who lives in Oregon, is a poster dog for the American Vitiligo Research Foundation.
Any animal with melanocytes that make pigment has the potential to develop vitiligo, White said, and when Adcock found out that Rowdy developed vitiligo on a beach in August 2014, just like Carter, she knew the two were destined to meet.
“It was kind of obvious that I had to do something there, and I had to reach out. I thought this might be our outlet to helping Carter because he was struggling at the time,” she said. “So when I saw this picture of this dog and saw that he had vitiligo, I reached out to his owners, and it’s pretty much been a friendship ever since.”
After Carter and Rowdy chatted via Facetime, Adcock
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Last spring, Carter Blanchard and his mother went to Ore- gon to meet Rowdy, a 14-year-old Lab with vitiligo. Meeting the dog allowed Carter to become more confident in his own appearance, and now he is working to help others embrace the differences that make them special.
decided that Carter should meet Rowdy in person. Earlier this year, Rowdy was about to turn 14, and his health was declining, and she wanted Carter to visit the dog as soon as they could. So she started a GoFundMe account to take Carter to Oregon for spring break.
A media outlet in Oregon broadcast a story about her efforts, and an hour after it aired, an anonymous donor sent them $5,000. The broadcast aired on a Thursday, and she and Carter were in Oregon that Saturday.
“It was really overwhelming because this person is a stranger to us,” she said, “and for someone to invest in our son like that to give him that experience, it’s very humbling.”
Carter continued to benefit from the kindness of strangers when he met Rowdy’s family, with whom he and his mother remain friends.
“They’re just like family to us now, and they were just like family when we walked through the door,” she said. “It was the first time we were meeting face to face, but I felt like I had known them my whole life. It didn’t feel like we were strangers or new people at all. It just felt like we were meant to be with them, and we were meant to be in their lives, and they were meant to be in ours.”
According to his biography on the foundation’s website, Rowdy has had a number of misadventures throughout his life, including being accidentally shot by a police officer who thought he was an intruder (they later became friends) and having the wrong tooth removed. In fact, while Adcock and Carter were visiting, Rowdy had a seizure. However, Carter was still thrilled to connect with his new friend.
“It was fun meeting him,” Carter said. “I was excited to meet him in person.”
Jermaine added that Rowdy made an impact on his son in a way that might not have been possible if he were human.
“[Carter’s] just a dog lover, and that’s how he’s been since he was little,” he said. “He embraced pet friendship before he did people at school.”
In addition, seeing how Rowdy was praised for his unique features instilled Carter with pride in his own look, Adcock said.
“[Rowdy’s] constantly having his pictures taken, and he’s constantly going to events. He’s got nothing but overwhelming positive reactions to his vitiligo,” she said. “So when he saw that dog get all that attention — and in his eyes, the dog’s
famous — then that kind of put stars in [Carter’s] eyes.” Those stars continued to shine even after Carter came
home, Jermaine added.
“He thinks he’s a little celebrity,” Jermaine said. “The first
thing he told me when he got back from Oregon was ... he needed a suit because he’s famous.”
THE WAY GOD MADE ME
Kids at school still ask Carter about the marks on his face, but now he has a response ready.
“When people ask, you say, ‘That’s how God made me,’” he said.
Jermaine said that watching his son learn to better respond to questions about his skin has been the most rewarding part of Carter’s journey.
“He doesn’t get bent out of shape,” Jermaine said. “If somebody doesn’t come straight out and ask, it might irritate him a little bit, but when people ask, he’s more prone to say, ‘This is what it is.’”
Friends and family have noticed the improvement in Carter’s self-esteem, Adcock said, adding that the trip was a turning point for her son.
“Rowdy has definitely changed [Carter’s] childhood for the better, and I have to give all the credit to Rowdy and his owner for making [Carter] feel good about himself and helping us make this full circle,” she said. “Now he’s proud of himself. He wouldn’t change himself. Look at all the opportunities his vitiligo has brought him.”
Soon after the initial story about the GoFundMe account aired, Adcock began receiving calls from all kinds of media outlets looking to share Carter’s story. In addition to the trip to Oregon, she and Carter went to Los Angeles, and they filmed with Hallmark, Inside Edition and Good Morning America, and interviewed with Time Magazine.
“We’ve just been all over, and these are opportunities we never would have had if he didn’t have vitiligo,” she added. “It’s really brought us memories, it’s brought us experiences, and most of all, it’s brought more people into our lives.”
Connecting with others who have vitiligo can have a profound impact on the emotional well-being of patients like Carter, White said.
“It seems like now he’s more confident in himself. Now he can talk about his skin disorder with someone and not be embarrassed about it,” White said. “I’m sure he would love to talk with any other kid who has vitiligo and share with them and encourage them. I think that’s been the biggest turnaround for him; he’s wanting to help others, too.”
In fact, Carter’s story has already helped adults, as well as children, who have vitiligo, Adcock said, adding that seniors who have felt uneasy about their vitiligo for years have been inspired by seeing Carter embrace his look.
Jermaine added that he views Carter’s journey as an opportunity to teach him about service to others. With straight A’s, a passion for soccer and renewed faith in himself, there seems to be no stopping Carter from achieving his dreams.
“I really want to mold him into being a motivator and a leader, especially as somebody who had to overcome this [obstacle to his] self-confidence,” Jermaine said. “If you start at a young age, he can be powerful when he’s 17, 18 years old, as smart as he is — and goofy as he is sometimes.”
In the meantime, Carter will continue sharing his story as long as it benefits others, Adcock said.
“We fully intend on making this our lifetime project,” she said. “Obviously, Carter’s always going to have [vitiligo], so if we can always use it for good, then we can always share his story, and we will.”
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