PT and Dallas Trip 3

I guess no news is good news when it comes to Ben's Head Blog! The past couple weeks have been busy, but nothing too stressful or urgent.

Ben started physical therapy last week. He has a mild case of Torticollis- which causes his head to always tilt to the left. It also prevents him from turning his head all the way to the left. Dr. Genecov mentioned this in the first 10 minutes of our first visit with him, as it is very common with Sagittal Craniosynostosis. Another reason to do physical therapy with Ben is to keep him on track with his gross motor skills. Because his head is so big and he has the added weight of the helmet, he is at risk for delays in gross motor skills- such as crawling.

Ben progressed a great deal just in the week of doing our special exercises. We would put him on our chest to do tummy time, so that he would be trying to lift his head to see our faces instead of just the floor. He did great with the exercise, especially with J.P. He usually just wanted to lay his head down and cuddle with his Momma! We also sit him on a ball and tip him to his left so he will tilt his head to the right. It is a natural instinct to balance yourself.

This week we are on to bigger and harder exercises. Ben now has tummy time on a rolled-up towel with his elbows tucked under him, like in the picture above. This allows him to hold his head up, but his shoulders take some of the pressure off his neck. He is doing really well so far. We also are focusing on getting him to turn his head to the left by tracking a toy. Again, doing great. I think he will be progressing quickly and we will hopefully be done with physical therapy, at least on a weekly basis, in a month or two. Right now we are going twice a week on non-Dallas weeks, and once a week on the weeks we have helmet fittings.

We went back to Dallas this Tuesday for another helmet adjustment. Everything is going along great- no problems. They didn't even need to adjust his helmet much, just tuck his little ear pieces back in to keep it stable on his head. Next time we go he will be scanned again. I am excited to see the progress he has made with his head shape. We will see Dr. Genecov next time we go back as well. Ben is such a great baby that the Dallas days are almost a little vacation for me! I get Ben to myself all day and get to do a bit of shopping every now and again. He is such a good traveler!

Good news on the insurance front! We were approved for in-network rates. I won't go too far into it, but both of our surgeons were considered out-of-network. It was possible that we would have had to pay a very large deductible because of this, but our appeal was approved and our insurance company is covering our surgeons. Thank goodness!!

Things are finally starting to settle down a little bit around our house. I laugh when I say that, because things are never calm at our house with three kids under four! But, they are much better than they were in the middle of preparing for his surgery.

Thank you to everyone for your continued prayers and support!