Headed for a Helmet

I have hesitated for a few weeks to blog about a new journey in our lives. It seems that there are things in life that sometimes seem too personal... issues in life you want to protect for fear that you may be hurt... or worse, that your children will be hurt. A journey I had made up to be so horrible in my head, God is turning into something completely different... and is teaching me things about myself that I'm still sifting through. I want to share this journey with you... the pics, the good days, the bad days.... and eventually, the perfectly rounded head! Oh, how we'll celebrate!

Cole has a mild case of Positional Plagiocephaly, a super fancy term for flatness of the head. Since he was born he's preferred the left side of his head while sleeping. Despite my efforts in his early months, he continued to roll his head back to the left while asleep. At 3 months the doctors didn't think this was something to be concerned with, but at 6 months they did X-Rays to determine if the bones of his skull were fusing together prematurely. Thankfully this was not the case, as that would have required cranial surgery... something I cannot imagine having to go through.

Since the bones in Cole's head looked good, they sent us to Hanger Orthodics and Prosthetics to look into a helmet to reshape his little head. Correction of flat head must be done before the soft spot closes... and since he was still young we had a little wiggle room. Hanger suggested we reposition him like crazy and keep him off his head unless he's asleep (if there was enough improvement, we would be able to forgo the helmet)... so that's what we did... we repositioned like crazy, got up in the night, used positional wedges, carried him everywhere... and his cranial measurements improved... by 1/16 of an inch! Ugh....

So, Cole will soon be sporting a helmet... and despite the heartache I initially felt over all of this (and still do from time to time), I am coming to terms with having a little football player around the house... and a little extra cranial protection as he begins to crawl and get into everything!

Today God has been so good to us. The helmet expense is not a cheap one... and it's an expense that is not covered by insurance because it's considered cosmetic *eye roll*. There are places that offer grant money for this type of thing and to them we are so grateful... both The Children's Miracle Network and the Shriner's have agreed to pay for a portion of Cole's helmet. We've also had two very sweet families provide us with a gift... and today (I missed my MOPS meeting to meet with the Shriner's) we were given an enormous amount of money from my MOPS group... I didn't know mommies carried that kind of money!!! :) God is using this whole experience to teach me about giving like the Acts church gave... they gave to anyone in need... our financial need has been met. I am so humbled and thankful for the love God has shown us through His people in the past week.

Be praying as we will be fitted for the helmet... I will call tomorrow to schedule the fitting... we're probably looking at Friday or Monday... they will basically paper mache Cole's head to get a good mold of his head... it's a messy process and somewhat timely for a 7 month old.

God's gone before us... we'll keep trusting.