Day One Hundred and Four

Actual Date: Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Big Day today! Parker got his "after" pictures taken for his Doc Band since he only had two more weeks left in it. When we first heard he was going to have to wear the Band for three months that seemed like forever, but really it went by in the blink of an eye.

Daddy came along to help!

Taking some measurements. When we first started his head had 15 millimeters of asymmetry. Now he is measuring only about a 5-7 millimeter difference. That's huge!

This is the life size cast of his "before" head. They've used it at every appointment to take measurements and show the areas where he was improving. You can see how lopsided his facial features were. One cheek is higher up than the other.

For this next picture, it is a top view of the head. It would be like you were looking right down on top of him. You can really see the flatness on the right side back and the slight bulge on the right front. It's really weird when you run your hand over it too because the bump in the front is so prominent. It feels like he had a huge knot on his head from bumping it or something but he didn't. That was really how his bones were forming. Crazy huh?

So are you ready for this? Here's the before and after!

Front and back view. Look how much thinner his face is. Instead of it all being flat and square shaped it's more oval shaped. Even his facial features seem to fit better since there's not so much face anymore.

When I first saw these I was amazed. It looks like his before picture is a Mr. Potato Head with miniature eyes, nose and mouth and the after looks like everything is just the right size!

And in the pictures of the back, you can really see how much his ear has moved up on his right side. And amazingly he hasn't had an ear infection in awhile too. Up till this point he had been having them like once a month.

Look at that little noggin! It's so much more round. And his forehead doesn't sloop forward as much.

And look how much that right ear has moved up!

And this shot is amazing too. Look how much the back of his head rounded out.

So at this point, it was up to us if we wanted to proceed forward with a second band. He was out growing the first band. We were very pleased with the results we were seeing and I figured we could do no wrong with a second band. The only problem is the cost. The insurance still hadn't said if they were going to pay for the first band yet, let alone a second one. And our technician told us that around 7 millimeters (which is right where he was at) is where the insurance usually cuts off coverage. So we went home to think about it some more.

Parker could really use the second band to help him really fill out the little bit of right side flatness and if the price of the helmet wasn't a factor, we would do it again in a heartbeat. However, we weren't sure if we could afford to shell out another $3,500 if the insurance wasn't going to cover it. So we decided we'd submit it to insurance and if they covered it then we'd go ahead and and go forward with the second band.

This time we heard back from the insurance within the week, they declined the second band. Still no word on the first one, they said they needed more paperwork from the doctor. So that's where we're at. I'm a little disappointed because I see where his head can still improve and I know it would with a second band. But also, I am grateful for all the progress he as made already and that we were able to at least do one band.

And like Brian's boss said "you don't wanna take all the character out of him."