Size Does Matter- Our Punch In The Gut

Actual Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Parker just turned 18 months so it was time for his 18 month old check up and shots.  

 You can see how excited he is about this.

 Is it just my kids or does anyone else have this hard of a time getting a good picture when two or more of them are together?

 Please tell me I'm not alone in this.

 Oh wait, here's a decent one.  Not perfect but at least they're both look at the camera!


So the appointment was pretty routine.  They weighed him took his measurements and all that jazz.  After the nurse took his measurements she headed out and said the Dr. would be in soon.  But just a minute later the nurse came back in and took his head measurements again because she said that his head hadn't grown since the last time she took it.  I tried not to think too much of it while I waited for the Doctor.


When the Doctor came in she looked him over and talked about how he was doing.  I told her that he had just tested out of PT and she was excited for us.  After that she said she's like to take some measurements of her own.  She did and she came up with the same exact number that the nurse had. 

17.5 inches for his head circumference.  

According to the records his head hasn't grown any since he was 9 months old.  

I guess I hadn't really paid attention to his head measurements since he got done with his Doc Band.  I had just figured we were over having to worry about his head. I didn't notice that he was slowly dropping down in the percentiles with every appointment.  As you can see his head circumference is now in the 1%.

The Doctor was quick to tell me not to stress just yet.  She said that a lot of time babies that undergo cranial reshaping have drastic growth numbers while in the band and show slowed rates after the band is removed. This is because we have taken the inches that were spread out and molded it into a more round shape.  She said although it's common we need to at some point mark a date as day one or ground zero and expect to see results from that measurement the next time he is examined.

So that's where we're at.  We are saying that "his normal" head circumference at 18 months is 17.5, even though that's still small for his age.  We're just looking for growth from that point.  

The Doctor also added that it looks like, according to his growth chart that he is due for a growth spurt.  He's under the 25% across the board.  So maybe in the next month or so he'll shoot right up and be back in the "normal" range.  

Now, I know she said not to worry but how do you not when someone hints that something might be wrong with you child?  

I kinda need to back up and explain that we've worried about Parker since before he was born...

When I was pregnant we had that blood test done that tells you that your child might have a birth defect. I think we did this with our other children but now the third time around the test came back positive.  Meaning the baby in my belly had a high chance of being born with Down Syndrome or a Spinal Defect.  

We made an appointment with the specialist to get some detailed sonograms and possibly a anmiocentesis.  You know when they stick the needle in your belly and take out some amnio fluid to analyze it.  That's the part I was worried about.  There is a chance of miscarriage with the amnio and we weren't sure we wanted to take that risk.

This is where I thank the Lord above for the Doctor I had.  He was such a great Christian man who listened to my concerns and let me cry it out.  Then he looked at Brian and I seriously and said "If you went ahead and did the amnio and found that something was wrong, would you abort?"  Of course he knew our answer was no, we could never do that.  So then he said "Then why bother doing the test?  Just go ahead with the appointment to get the detailed sonograms and a second opinion but don't even bother with the amnio.  Just pray for the best and prepare for the worst and God will take care of the rest."

So that's exactly what we did.  That advise got us through that pregnancy with our sanity and in the end he came out perfect.  Imagine if we would have done the test and lost the baby, perfectly healthy or not.  That would have devastated us.  

So we made it over that hurtle.  Then when the little man was about 2 months old we started to notice that he wasn't turning his head from side to side like he should be doing.  We mentioned it to the Doctor and she said to make sure we were rotating his head while he slept and that should help.  A few weeks later he wasn't showing any signs of improvement and now his head was starting to get a little flat in the back so we took him back in.  She said he had something called Torticollis.  Basically his neck muscle on the right side was tight and that wasn't allowing him to have a full range of motion.  We were given some at home streches that we could to do to help the muscle stretch and we were referred to physical therapy when he was about 3 months old.  

See how his head tilted to the right.  That's from the tight muscle.

After about 3 months of PT and at home stretches his neck was getting noticeably better but his head was drastically worse by that point.  We were then referred to the Doc Band specialists and soon the little man was sporting a helmet for the next 4 months.

 The helmet did wonders for reshaping his head.  Because the back right side of his head was flattened out it had pushed everything forward on that side, leaving him looking like he had a permanent bump on his head.  The helmet rounded that all back out and it even lined his eyes up straighter and his right ear even moved back to it's proper position.  It was a huge success.

"Helmet laws are a bummer"

However things in PT were going a little slower.  Because of the Torticollis Parker was unable to do tummy time successfully.  When he would try to push up on his arms he would be lopsided and flip over because his right shoulder was so tight still.  It took awhile but we got that muscle stretched out but then he struggled with his whole right side being weaker because he was unable to use it for so long.

As we were building up the strength on that right side we started noticing that when he would try to walk his right foot was not pointing straight like it should be when he was taking steps, it was turning out. After some x rays we were sent to a Orthopedic specialist to determine if he had something called Hip Dysplasia.  

After some more x rays with the specialist he determined that everything is fine bone wise.  He said he thinks that the foot is turning out because the muscle is weak.  Parker had  just started walking the week before we saw him so the Dr. said that we should start seeing it turning in slowly as he built up muscle from walking.  He does however want to see him next month to check up on that foot and if it's not better he said he would refer us to a Neurologist because at that point it if it's not turned in it would have something to do with something going on in his brain. 

So you can see why I freaked out when our Pediatrician mentioned that Parker's head measurements are not quite where they should be.  I even came home and did the worst thing possible and googled about small head size.  Yeah, that was not good.  I just freaked myself out more.

Brian is trying to be the rock of the family but I know he's worried about it too.  The night we got the news he headed out to the gym after we got the kids to bed and didn't come home for over two hours.  

Parker on the other hand is none the wiser.  He has no idea that anything could be wrong.  He's just his normal happy self.  This video is of him dancing after we got home from the Doctor.  He cracks us up daily with his little personality.  He's such a ham.

I am so grateful for all the amazing people in my life.  I had told myself that we're not going to worry about it.  What is going to happen is going to happen.  Brian said "We can measure his head at home."  But what is that going to do?  Just make us worry more if we don't see results.  The girls in my Bible Study have been so amazing.  They let me share my heart and have surrounded us in love and prayer.  It's been so comforting to know that my Prayer Warriors are on the job.

So that's where we're at.  We don't go back to the doctor until his 2 year appointment, 6 months from now.  Until then we will be "Praying for the best but preparing for the worst.  God will take care of the rest."