Flat Headed Boys They'll Be Riding Today (HOL 29)

House of Laughter 29

Thank you for all the e-mails and prayers regarding our trip to Wake Forest Monday. Nancy and I were still a little nervous during the trip to Winston, but we were much calmer than before. Isaac and I were in for a treat when we got there. While Nancy checked us in, he and I went and looked at the helicopter pad again. I remembered looking out the same window two months ago. This time Isaac was standing up and staring intently at the helicopter, especially when the blade started turning and the helicopter flew away.

They took Isaac back to the same room to scan his head. They put a nylon stocking cap on his head, and I made a joke about how he had just put activator in his hair. Everyone just stared blankly at me. (I thought it was funny). They scanned his melon with the laser again, and put us in an exam room to wait for the P.A.

The P.A. brought pictures from the two scans, one from two months ago, and one from twenty minutes earlier. ( Nancy will scan a copy of it and I will post it later this week.) Initially I noticed no difference, but the P.A. pointed out how the back left and left face were rounding out. She said he had gone from a “3” to a “2” in a voice that let me know that this was a good thing. “When he gets to a ‘1’ we just have to tweak it occasionally.”.

The upshot of all of this. His face is now symmetrical, but the back of his head and ear aren’t quite there yet. In another two months we are going to reassess, and he might be done with helmets, or he might have to wear it another two months, or he might have to wear it only at nights. He is improving, but he still has to wear the thing 24 hours, and let me tell you, it gets funky.

I want to say I wish the helmet was gone, but I am having so much fun with the boy, that I can’t bring myself to really want anything to change. His self feeding skills are increasing in efficiency, and I have slowly been introducing olives into his diet, so when he gets older, he and I can out vote Nancy when the time comes to order pizza.

The two of us went on a long walk tonight, and we had a great time looking at trees and dogs and cats and birds and chatting with neighbors and letting old ladies faun over him.

His sleeping is even getting better. Nancy and I have decided to do the “Cold Turkey” method of bedtime. We put him down and just let him cry until he puts himself to sleep. The first time was almost an hour of non stop crying. I had Nancy chained to a wall in the bedroom. It was hard on me too. I was trying to play Tiger Woods on X-box.

Tonight he cried for about 20 minutes and zonked out. Of course in that 20 minutes, he managed to push himself in to the far corner of the crib and now his legs are dangling out the slats, but a win is a win.

Life is good. The helmet is only for now.

Strength and Honor

Big Matt