plagio-what?

Isaac was recently diagnosed with plagiocephaly. If you've done your homework, you know it basically means he has a partially flat head. His case is mild, but it's there and needs to be corrected. Technically, he has parietal occipital flattening, left frontal flattening and associated facial asymmetry, along with an ear shift of the right ear anterior to the left. Did you get all that? Me neither. Translation... back right is flatter, which pushed the right forehead, face and ear all slightly more forward. He's got a lot of hair, so it's not that noticeable. But, it was, and is. Can you tell in this picture?



Keith and I first mentioned it to our Pediatrician at Isaac's 2 month well-child visit. Response, "Oh, it's not that severe. It will correct itself." Okay. She's the pediatrician, she's seen this before, so that's why she said that, and we believed her. 4 months well-child visit...we bring it up again. Same response. 6 months...same. 9 months...we are fed up. It never got better. It never corrected itself. So we finally pushed for a referral. (At this point, we asked ourselves, why did it take us so long to push? We should have gone with our parental instincts sooner. But, we didn't, and my heart still struggles with that.) Anyway, we were finally referred to Cranial Technologies for an evaluation. They took pictures and measurements of Isaac's head from every angle and presented their findings, which I stated above. They told us it probably would not get worse, but that it would never get better without help. Thankfully, his development has not been affected. But, in the future, do we want him to deal with helmets that don't fit right when he wants to ride a bike or play sports...or glasses that sit uneven on his ears...or possible jaw trouble? Definitely not, if we can help it.

So, first step was to create a mold of his head so he could be fitted for a DOC band (the helmet.) They pulled white hose over his head to flatten everything down. He looked so pathetic, all smooshed and squeezed. I asked Keith to take a picture and Isaac actually tried to smile at Daddy under those hose. Precious. They sat him on a stool surrounded by cameras and with one click, they captured 5 different angles at once. Brilliant! Before such technology, they used to cast the child's head with plaster. Thank goodness we didn't have to go through that!



We went back two weeks later for the fitting. They explained that he has to wear the helmet 23 hours a day for about 4 months. We take it off 1 hour every night to clean it and wash his hair. He gets to play for a bit, and then it goes back on. The first few days Isaac didn't sleep that great, and would tug at the helmet every now and again. But other than that, he really took it all in stride. I was the emotional mess. My heart broke every time I looked at him with that white helmet. So medical and depressing. He wasn't phased, but I was. (The day after he got the helmet, he learned to climb the stairs. I suppose that was good timing...just in case he falls...he's got protection.)



I kept trying to tell myself things could be so much worse. "Steph, this is temporary, correctable, and something he will not even remember." However, that only spoke to a small part of my heart. There rest of me was already mourning the loss of four months without is snuggly head. You see, it is an affection spot for me. I'm always rubbing it, kissing him right behind the ears, softly scratching the back while he nurses, holding him cheek-to-cheek, and when I rock him, it perfectly nestles in the crook of my neck. Now I'm met with cold helmet every time. Also, Isaac soothes himself by twirling and playing with his hair on the backside of his head. The first time I nursed him with the helmet, as he was getting sleepy, he reached up only to find hard helmet. He felt around trying to locate some hair and finally made it to the top of his head where he found a small strand sticking out. Are your heart strings being tugged yet? Well, things got brighter once we got the helmet wrapped. Now, I smile when I look at him, and so does everyone else. We don't get empathetic stares in public, but lots of "he's adorable!" comments. Wait, Steph...wrapped? First, take a peak and then I'll explain.


Basically, we knew we wanted to decorate the helmet and I had done my research on paints and stickers and the like. In my searching, I came across a blog in which a dad wrote about having his son's helmet wrapped. Turns out there is a sign shop in Dallas that does it as their philanthropy. Awesome! Except, we live in Connecticut. So, we found a sign shop near us and inquired if they could do the same. Long story short (ha!), we sent them our idea...they created it...didn't charge us a dime...and it turned out fabulous! Props to the guys at Signarama in Wallingford, CT!!!


So, that's the latest on our life here in CT with our cutie Isaac in his helmet. Sorry it took me so long to get all this down and out to y'all. I'm glad you are up to date now. We're sending lots of love your way!