Unknown Territory

This last month has been a whirlwind for us. While at Layne's 9 month checkup, I asked his doctor about his head shape. ( He has a flattened spot on the back of his head on the right side. At birth he had a hemotoma there because he came out at an angle.) His doctor recommended that I take him to get his head evaluated. I was terrified about what the results of this evaluation would be. Back in January at his 6 month appointment, I had stressed concerns over his head shape as well. The doctor told me that if it didn't change drastically by his next appointment that we would look at our options.

Two weeks ago, we took Layne to CCHS to get his head evaluated.

After a not so fun scan of his head and a jackass of a practioner, we walked out of there frustrated, pissed off, and in tears. ( I was in tears not Matt...) The practioner told us Layne has plagiocephaly. He blamed us for not bringing him in earlier and told us that his head would never been perfect, that his ears are misaligned and that he will probably have terrible vision!!

Matt and I just couldn't bear to go back to CCHS. We called Layne's peditrician and wanted to see if there was anywhere else we could go to get a second opinion. His doctor recommended us to a different practioner and we set up an appointment. This past Friday we went in for an evaluation. The practioner was alot more helpful and didn't blame us for Layne's head problem. He told us that it isn't the worst case of plagiocephaly that he has seen but it also isn't the mildest case he's seen either. He recommended that we have him wear a Starband. I'm not too excited about this but I want to do what is best for Layne. We are going back later this week to get a cast made of Layne's head so we can get his helmet made.

It is undecided how long Layne will have to wear the helmet. The practioner said it could be for a couple of months or it could be longer. Layne will have to wear the helmet for 23 hours a day. However we can take it off for special occasions and such. I hope that this will help Layne's head shape greatly.

Here is some pictures of before and after pictures of children who have had plagiocephaly and have been treated. I will keep updating about this as we go through this process.