Two Surgeries & A Helmet.....All Under One

Holden will be uno año in a few weeks.  First of all, OMG!  I still can't believe it.  In the middle of all his birthday party planning and mailing out invitations, we had yet another surgery.  Now don't let me mislead you, my kiddo isn't super sick or have a super bad ailment, just had a few things we needed to fix.  :)  So let's rewind back to March, Holden was diagnosed with Plagiocephaly.  If you haven't read my previous blog ----> Plagio-What check it out!  It will tell you all about his diagnosis. But to keep you on track for this post, plagiocephaly is where babies have flat spots on their heads.  So to make a long story short, Holden go this helmet in April 2013, and did swimmingly with it and got it off in August 2013.  One month later after our 6 month visit in April, we were referred to a Urologist for Holden's undescended right testicle.  We were told at 3 months that it had descended, so we didn't worry about it any more.  By the time he was 6 months we had changed Dr.'s b/c we had issues with the doctor/staff at the previous office; and the new Dr. told us that no, indeed his right testicle was not descended and referred us to urology.  Grrrrrrrrrreat!  Well found out he needed surgery, but first available wasn't till September, so put that on the back burner to deal with life at is was.  So after that visit, fast forward two months to June 2013.  Holden had a frenectomy done.  Holden, inherited one and ONLY one thing from me, he was born tongue tied.  That little tiny piece of skin under your tongue, well his was super duper short and made it almost near impossible for him to stick his tongue out.  That was one thing I noticed when I was nursing, he never got a good latch, because of his tongue tied.  I wanted to avoid any chance of speech delay or speech impediments, so we got this fixed when he was little and wouldn't remember it. I however got this done as an adult in 2010.  HORRIBLE idea.  Honestly, I did it out of sheer curiosity because my tongue was super short and lets just say Kenny thinks I'm a much better kisser.  Man I feel sorry for all my previous boyfriends......sorry for all the bad kisses dudes!  ;)~  He recovered like a champ, was great!  Now, fast forward again to 3 months later, it's now September.  Holden's surgery was this past Monday he had an Orciopexy--a surgery to move an undescended testicle into the scrotum and permanently fix it there.  Talk about intense!  They do a small incision in the groin area and a small incision in the testicle.  The pull the undescended testicle from the abdomen area and pull it down to the scrotum and suture it in place permanently.  This little dude is my hero!  He was quite cuddly/sore/tender/tired/mad all on Monday, but Tuesday you'd had no idea he had surgery.  He slept through the whole night and took his normal nap time the next day.  He was awesome, such a trooper!

We have had two minor surgeries and a helmet all under the age of one!  You never imagine as a mother to go through anything but happy and fun time with your baby.  I never in a million years imagined my son would have had those two surgeries and a helmet for 4 months.  But it made me a stronger Mom, more educated and we bonded in a different way than any other mother and son could bond.  I know Holden won't remember any of these things that happen to him, other than photos and Kenny and I telling him what happened.  But I'm glad I experienced it, not glad that all that happened to him, but grateful for the positive outcomes we got out of them.  Holden is now a strapping almost toddler who no longer has a flat spot on his head, who is no longer tongue tied and who has two testicles where they are supposed to be!  Doing any kind of surgery on your child is scary, but when you have God in your life and you give your child to Him when they are going in for their procedure, you know everything will be O.K.!

Brightest Blessings,
Valerie

Countdown To Molding A Melon

Tomorrow at two in the afternoon we are going to get Holden's helmet.  I am excited, scared, nervous, anxious; all of the above and then some.  I know this is this just the beginning of our journey with the correction of Holden's plagiocephaly, it just seems so far off.  I calculated (and this is just a guesstimation of how long he might be in the helmet) that around 9-12 months old he'll be out of the helmet if all goes well.  That's 3- 6 whole months of this....

-not being able to kiss his lil' head at night when I rock him to sleep
-not being able to rub his head when I rock him to sleep
-not being able to kiss his forehead when we take our naps together
-not snuggle *comfortably*
-not hold him in my arms/against my chest and feel his sweet lil' head against my bosom
-explaining to everyone that I'm not an overprotective Mommy and that the helmet is NOT for his safety
-checking the weather to see if in this great state of HOT ASS TEXAS if we can go outside and not drown my son in sweat with his helmet
-figuring out what is the best time for his 1hr out of the helmet should be
-seeing which clothes will fit over his helmet---this should be fun!

I know this is the best for him and it's only temporary, but I can still be a lil' sad about those things right now!  I mean that's 3-6 months of his life that I won't get to kiss on his lil' noggin, see it grow, see his hair grow!  That's something I never thought I'd look foward to seeing, but damn if it ain't now! 

I have been doing some more research online and reading about this and seeing what I can do on my end to be a good mommy with it.  I've read several mom's gave in to the screaming and crying of their babies wearing it through the night for the first time and took it off because they couldn't take their baby crying.  I just hope and pray I am strong enough to get through the tough times with this.  I have three mommy friends I know who have either had their children in helmets or are in a helmet now that will help me through this.  They are going to be my go-to people and support through this.  And I always have my wonderful Kenny, he will definitely be my rock through this, as he is always.

We got Holden's helmet in "military camo" from the options that Star Cranial had......BUT.....the one cool thing about this helmet is that we already have an appointment made on May 2 to get Holden's helmet personally customized.  This awesome company in town called Traffic Graphics designs these helmets for FREE with whatever design we want on it.  So I was thinking about getting some kind of owl design and on the back of it say "Owl Be Okay" or "Owl Be Okay, Just Fixin' My Flat"  hehehehe  :)  I have a few weeks to play with designs, so we'll see what we can come up with and we'll show you when we get it made!  

Palgio-what??

Plagiocephaly--"is a condition characterized by an asymmetrical distortion (flattening of one side) of the skull this condition is also referred to as cheese cutter syndrome"

Thanks Wikipedia.....cheese cutter syndrome, really?  Geez....guess instead of saying my son has plagiocephaly or a flat spot, I'll just say his head looks like a cheese grater.  Yeah, that won't confuse anyone! 

Holden was diagnosised with plagiocephaly in early March 2013.  I had noticed it when he was around 2 months and the doctor said all babies get flat spots, it'll round out over time.  Well his 4 month vist came around and it hadn't gotten any worse, but it hadn't gotten any better.  I was concerned, and the pediatrician didn't even mention it on this visit.  So after seveal instances with this particular doctors office staff, (not the dr he is/was great, the staff SUCKED!) and doing my own research on plagiocephaly, I decided it was best if I changed pediatricians.  This new office (which I love!) sent a referal for us to Star Cranial Excellence Group.  When we went to the appt, they did the scan of his head both with the machine and manually with the appropriate instruments.  Baseline for babies head is 6mm, Holden's was 16mm, which is more than double. 

So then we were told he was gonig to need to wear a helmet.  I knew it deep down in my gut, even before the appointment.  Just my mommy institnct kicking in I guess.  So we just got the green light today from the insurance (which took me calling to see what hold up was) that we are approved!  Since our deductible hasn't been met this yr, our portion is $1060. If we wouldn't have gotten approval we would have had to pay $2300.  So that's a $1240 difference, but it's still  exspensive none the less.

So we are going back to Star Cranial tomorrow at 8am to get another scan done to get sent off to get Holden's helmet made. Im a little scared of this whole situation, but I've been praying on it and lifting up my worries to the Lord because I know he knows what is best for my lil' nugget. Stay tuned for updates and progress!

Check out Holden's scan, you can see the two flar spots he has.