Sunday, July 6, 2008

Alvin--update

We went and saw the craniofacial specialist at Yale Medical. They are not willing to confirm craniosyntosis just yet, but they have confirmed that he has 2 deformities of the skull: plagiocephaly and brachycephaly. Basically, the left side and back of his skull are completely flat. They are going to be doing some sort of diagnostic readings on his head today, then we will have to have a 360 point head scan in the next week. Then, those images will be sent off to create what is called a DOC band (http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmNyYW5pYWx0ZWNoLmNvbS9UcmVhdG1lbnQvaW5kZXguaHRtbA== ) will wear for 8-12 weeks to start. If no improvement is seen, then we will go from there. He will have to wear the band 23 hours a day. And we will have to go once a week to Clinton, CT to have check ups. This royally sucks, but, in the end, its better than having to face surgery. I am sooo glad we live in CT too. Becuse if you click on that link, there arent many of these treatment centers around.Basically, what we are being told is this. They dont know what is causing it. His sleeping and tummy time patterns do not coincide with the flattening of his head, but the coronal suture isnt completely fused either. So, we are going to try this and see if it works. I will keep everyone posted as his treatement goes along.