Saturday, January 30, 2016

Home


When I wrote down the events of Archer's story, I had included the following.  

We are closing in on 2 weeks post op and his incision wounds seem to be better after every single nap.  We are able to scrub them clean and put polysporin on them, without any fight from Archer. In fact, he is totally unphased, as if we are not touching him at all. He used to hate his head being touched and would refuse to wear hats.  I’m not saying it’s because of the surgery that he maybe feels less sensitivity there, but it is uncanny timing for him to suddenly become less bothered.   Our next step in this journey is his helmet fitting and transitioning into wearing that for 23 hours a day. 



We were discharged on a Thursday, allowed swelling to disappear over the weekend, and went for his post op helmet scan on Tuesday.   His pre-op scan was somewhat of a disaster that resulted in owl like screeches, overwhelmed shakey hands and arms, and a bright red face that remained red for an hour afterwards.  Did I mention the scan required him to lay on a piece of glass (like a copying machine) still for all of….2.5 seconds.  He couldn’t do it!  I was super worried we were going to have trouble with the post op scan, but after hours and hours of prayer, we were able to get the scan in the first attempt!   We had brought all the toys we own, along with my mom and cousin for added support.   So thankful we didn’t need them. 

Next Monday, we have a post op appointment and then the helmet fitting.   We were warned they can be a bit rough on the baby, because they’ll be taking the helmet off and on to make sure it’s fitted correctly.  It can be annoying, but won’t be painful at all.  I anticipate lots of crying and cranky behavior as we begin walking down the helmet path.   We’ve made it this far!  We’ll make it a few month in a helmet.

Update:  His helmet fitting was pretty rough.  The orthotist didn't lie about that.  Mainly, Archer did not like having it on and off, as well as all the pulling to make sure it was on correctly and fit snug.  As usual, he was pushing his awake time, getting very cranky, and super easily irritated, resulting in escalated crying.  He even ended up falling asleep in my moms arms, while we were scheduling our future appointments.  This may seem like normal infant behavior, but it was not with our child.  It still isn't at 5.5 months. He doesn't sleep just anywhere. I will write a separate post on his helmet journey, but wanted to update on that fitting.  The ones since have not been thrilling, but they are just something we have to deal with in order to move on to the next phase, which is to be helmet free!








No comments:

Post a Comment