FREEDOM!

Laura had deformational plagiocephaly. That's very fancy medical terminology for abnormal head shape. The back left side of her head was flat and in turn, the front left side bulged out, causing all her facial features to be out of symmetry. All this happened because she had torticollis (another fancy medical term that means chronic stiff neck) so she favored her right side because turning her head that way wasn't painful for her.

We had an evaluation with a cranio-facial specialist for a corrective helmet to help restore her natural head shape. We were told that without the helmet, her head may restore itself to a more normal shape but it may not. With the helmet, it won't ever be perfect but her features will re-allign and her flat spot would only be noticeable by people who knew it was there. However, in order for the helmet to work, she would have to wear it for 23 out of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, taking it off only for a bath and so we could clean it. Even with daily cleaning, the helmet would eventually start to smell funky. And, insurance rarely covers them.

Despite our nervousness about how Laura would adjust, but we decided to do it and at 7 months of age, she went into her helmet. Although we had a few really rough nights of sleep at first, she eventually adjusted to it. We went weekly to have head measurements and helmet adjustments and Joey became very well versed in explaining to anyone who asked (and some who didn't) that his sister "...wears a helmet to fix her head shape because it is flat but won't be when she's done with the helmet".

Today, our measurements showed less than a 1/8" differential between her left and right forehead, which is considered completely normal. The flat spot has rounded out nicely and is hardly noticeable, her facial features are back in alignment and although her ears are still "off", it's not noticeable. Today we were told she no longer needs to wear the helmet. Y E A H ! She is free!

I just want to add that the one negative to her newfound freedom is that when she had her helmet on, she would bounce off of furniture or clunk her head without consequence because the helmet acted as a buffer. She's hit her head more than once doing things she's done 1000 times with the helmet but now it hurts! I'm fairly confident it will be a quick learning curve and she'll be bouncing off things again in no time (or perhaps learning to avoid them!)