Last week Calvin had a head CT scan scheduled. The last time he had a scan of his head was shortly after surgery when he was around 1 or 2 years old. At that time they said everything looked good and he was free to go ahead with whatever activities/sports he wanted and that his head was solid!
We were supposed to follow up annually with a cranial facial surgeon which we did. Our first year in San Deigo we went to see Dr. Cohen at the cranial facial clinic here. he said that he would like to do a revision of the forehead...a very simple procedure to straighten out the brow and other remaining deformities of the head. Not having thought that a second surgery was in our future I didn't think it was necessary. We thought Calvin looked fine, and even though his head was a bit asymmetrical, nobody could really notice since he wore glasses. Dr. Cohen told us that it was fine, but that we could return to him if we ever changed our mind.
We figured that some day we would do the surgery but why make a kid go through surgery when it wasn't really necessary at the time.
Over the past year or two we have changed our thinking and are now leaning towards letting Dr. Cohen do the surgery he recommended to us years ago. There are several things that caused us to change. 1. Calvin started wanting and then wearing contacts. We knew once his glasses were out of the way, the assymetry of the face would be more visible. 2. Dr. Cohen is a great dr and we feel doing the surgery at Rady's with Dr. Cohen is a good thing. 3. We thought we shoudl do the revision before Calvin begins to care about how he looks and what others think of him. In this sense, the younger the better. I actually wish I had done this surgery already for this reason. Plus the younger the child, the less I think they will remember of the surgery.
Anyway, we went to Dr. Cohen to tell him we'd like to consider seriously the surgery. So, he ordered a head CT to so he can see how everything looks before planning the surgery.
Calvin is not always the most compliant of kids and even a compliant kid could struggle sticking their head in a noisy machine and being told to lay perfectly still (no breathing, either)!!! So, the order with a CT is general anestesia. Calvin's appt was for noon one day which meant that he could not eat any breakfast or morning snacks. This is a big deal for any kid, Calvin included and since he wakes up so early he really had to skip 3 meals (wee morning snack, breakfast and snack). He wined a few times but overall did pretty well.
The real miracle happened when Dave (bless him) took Calvin to the scan. Dave requested that they try the scan without anestesia first. I think that having Dave (a DR) make this request was taken more seriously than if I had made it, but who knows. In any case, they decided to try without the anestesia, which they really hate to use for a 30 second scan anyway. Calvin laid on the table and was PERFECT for this scan. It was amazing! I was so happy to hear about this.
Dave was very eager to look at the images! I will try to figure out how to cut out some pictures and post them here. Calvin's brain looks good but he has some definite abnormalities with his skull shape and also some areas of very thin skull and even some small holes. I will be interested to hear what Dr. Cohen has to say about it when we see him again in a couple of weeks.
Oh, Denise!
ReplyDeleteDon't even know what I would do or how I would cope. I look at my kids now, still so young and their future unknown and worry about what problems we will have to face. Sierra is already sticking out as my most defiant and difficult child. Running out in the parking lot, running away most anywhere, talking back, lying, outright disobedience, etc. And only 3 years old. I am trying to squelch it while she's young, but it is a battle. I can't even imagine if she was older. Looks like I need to read some parenting books. ;)
Good luck. And thanks for blogging.