Follow-up Appointment and Illness

Follow-Up Appointment

Elias had his follow up appointment with the neurosurgeon on Wednesday, last week. A different neurosurgeon saw Elias because his neurosurgeon, Dr. Kazina, was on holidays. Dr. Serletis checked out the stitches and said everything looked good. The doctor was happy with the progress.

I asked Dr. S about whether Elias could experience his senses differently now that his brain was no longer "squished". We noticed on Sunday at church that when the music was playing, which was rather loud, that Elias started to cry. Elias had never cried during the service before. Dr. S. said that although Elias' condition was mainly a cosmetic one, he could have been experiencing pain. He also compare the surgery to that of unbuttoning a tight pair of pants. His brain is now allowed to "breathe". Elias is still the very content baby he was before but now expresses himself a little more.

3 months old

Helmet/Star Scan Appointment

Elias had his second star scan appointment on Wednesday as well. The helmet is made in California and shipped to Winnipeg for the technicians to shape it to where they want his head to expand. We are expecting for the helmet to arrive in a week and a half as we have a helmet fitting appointment on July 18th.

Here are a couple of questions I asked the technician at this appointment:

1. How long does it take for Elias to break in the helmet?

• Over the course of 5 days, we will put Elias in the helmet for short amounts of time to get him accustomed to it. Each day we will increase the time Elias is in the helmet. By the end of the 5 days, Elias will be fully accustomed to the helmet.

2. How many hours a day does Elias have to wear the helmet?

• 23 hours a day with one hour to let him bathe

3. How long will Elias have to wear the helmet?

• The technician said that it could be around 5 - 6 months. He may need a second helmet fitted to him as he will likely outgrow the first helmet. 

A comparison of before and after

Nathan and Illness

Unfortunately, we are still dealing with an "illness" in our house. When Nathan came back from camping with my parents, we noticed he had a little scrape on his nose. We asked him about it and he couldn't recall where he got it. We proceeded to ask my parents and they also didn't know how he got it. We figured it was just a scrape and it would heal. However, his sore/scrape expanded eventually turned into a rash. I brought him to the doctor and she told us that he has impetigo, a skin infection which affects children around 2 - 5 years old. Nathan is on oral antibotics as well as a special ointment for a week. The doctor told Nathan that his medicine will taste like bubble gum which made him really excited to try it. Once he tried it, he wasn't as excited about it. So as every good parent does, I bribed him to take it. I told him we would get real bubble gum after he was finished all of his medicine. He had been doing really well to take it!

Next Up

• July 18th - Helmet fitting
• August 6th - Four month appointment
• August 22nd - Genetic testing
• August 22nd - follow up appointment with neurosurgeon and plastic surgeon
• August 22nd - Star scan (I'm assuming to check progress)
• Date unknown - developmental testing