Graduation Day

Yesterday, March 7, 2008, Maxwell officially graduated from wearing his fabulous helmet. We are so excited. From being in Primary Children's hospital for 2 months as a brand new baby Max laid a lot on his back, thus causing him to suffer a flat head. As he got older we noticed his facial characteristics starting to shift. His ears were rotating around his head and his left side of his face was a lot fuller than his right. We were having a occupational therapist come to our house to help Max with his torticollis, which caused his head to tilt to the right. His neck muscles were really tight and we were having to do stretches to help him straighten his neck. She noticed the shape of his head and suggested that we have a cranial facial specialist look at it. So we made an appointment with Dr. Morales at Primary Children's. It brought back a lot of tender memories and feelings of gratitude returning to the hospital.

We had Maxwell fitted for his helmet the end of October and he received his new head gear right around Thanksgiving. To fit the helmet they used the same stuff they wrap around your arm when you get a cast. They cut strips of the gooey wrap to on the top of Max's head to go from ear to ear. He was so good he just sat there. By the time they were all done he looked like a mummy with his head hung down from all of the weight. We had to go to the Orthotics office to have the helmet looked at and adjusted to make sure it was putting pressure in just the right spots. We saw Dr. Morales every six weeks to report his progress. Luckily Dr. Morales came to Idaho Falls at the Pediatric Center so we didn't have to drive to Primary Children's for a 5 minute Dr. visit. When Max started the remolding process his head deformity was considered to be 8 out of 10. Now he is a wonderful 2 out of 10. All of the perseverance paid off. He still has a little bit of flatness on the back but not enough to really worry about. Dr. Morales said he may continue to grow out of it.

We will be every so grateful to Janice the occupational therapist who suggested the helmet in the first place. It gave us that extra push to do it.  And I know Maxwell will be even more thankful since it is his head that he has to live with for the rest of his life.