Plagio update.

As you have read in earlier posts, Anna was diagnosed with positional plagiocephaly and we have a journey ahead of us to help her. For the past couple months Anna has been in physical therapy at Vanderbilt Children's hospital for the torticollis (head tilt which caused the plagiocephaly). Amy is our therapist and she is great! We have now graduated from every week appointments to every other week! We are pretty excited about it.

We are continuing to work with Anna so she doesn't fall behind developmentally. So we work really hard with sitting (supported and un-supported), rolling over tummy to back in both directions (she only wants to roll one way...easier way because of her neck), "catching" her weight when unbalanced, rolling back to tummy (we aren't quite there yet), pushing up with her hands when she is on her tummy (almost there...not quite yet) and many more exercises. We do these many times a day with stretches added in. She is a good sport.

Last friday, Anna had a head CT at Vanderbilt at 7:30am. It was a tough morning as I couldn't nurse her past 3am. So the alarm was set, woke her up at 2:25am to nurse (she normally sleeps until past 4am) which she was a good sport for. Unfortunately, she was stirring at 6am which broke my heart since no food was in sight for her for awhile. Thankfully she went back to sleep in the car as we head to Vanderbilt at 6:30am. They brought us back around 7:20am and of course, she wakes up. They put us in a small room and poor Anna was just hungry. She was just crying and crying...which kept getting louder and louder. I don't blame her!

They gave her an oral medication (propibarbitol--something like that) to sedate her during the scan. Well, this is where I just lost it. Her eyes got really sleepy and I just cried and cried...I can only imagine that feeling was strange and new to her and I was just worried. Once she was asleep, I was able to carry her into the CT room and while John and I donned lead jackets...she wakes up. Umm...that's right, she WOKE UP. Everyone just stopped what they were doing as she looks at us with wide eyes. Yea...they aren't supposed to wake up. So we just stared back at her and I slowly rubbed her forehead until she went back to sleep. A quick 5 min scan and we were able to take her to recovery. The nurse told us to expect at least 30 min of grogginess or her just being asleep. Well, just kidding, Anna was awake from the moment we walked into recovery...and happy as a clam! She was showing all the nurses her toes and how great they were. We were extremely relieved!

We received a call from our pediatrician, Dr. Ewing, that night that the CT scan looked normal (except for the plagiocephaly). Whew! We scheduled our appointment with Dr. Kelly at Vanderbilt plastic surgery to discuss helmet therapy. I am trying to get us in sooner as we have to wait until May 10! Grrr. This is time sensitive!

In the mean time, we have an appointment with Hanger Orthotics next Monday with Jason to discuss their helmet options and process.

This will be a trying time for all of us as we cope with the potential that Anna could be in a helmet for 3-4 months. Prayers are appreciated!