Garrett's story and progress :-)

[Guest guest]

Hi to all,

I have been overwhelmed with all the postings in this group, it is

wonderful that there are so many people with positive attitudes and

advice. I have only posted one message before, I don't get much

computer time with a husband who loves to play games and a 13 year

old daughter who loves to chat :-)

My son Garrett is 5 months old and has Torticollis and Plagio. I

knew within the first week that there was something wrong but the

initial doctor that we saw kept telling me the same thing, don't

worry it will round out. We changed doctors and I told the new ped

that Garrett always had his head to the right and it was always

crooked. Also that it was very obvious to me that his head was

mishaped. He agreed and tried to move Garrett's head, it was like a

spring !! He flipped it right back to the right side again :-) The

doctor diagnosed him with torticollis and positional plagiocephaly.

He made an appointment straight away with the neurosurgeon for the

following week. We had the appointment with the neurosurgeon and he

wrote a prescription for a helmet. He told us that there was a place

here where we live that makes them and has had great success. We

went for a casting straight from the neuro's office. We couldn't

believe how quickly things were happening. The following week

Garrett got his helmet. Within the first week we noticed that his

head was beginning to look better. We had to leave the helmet off

last week because he has a reflux problem. He had up chucked and the

daycare hadn't noticed that it had got into his helmet. When we got

him home and took the helmet off, his head was very red and sore with

blistering starting to appear. We left it off for a week and he is

doing much better now. We have found that if we roll up a small

towel and put it under his head that this helps a little. We had

another fitting today and the chap who fits the helmet told us to use

alcohol when we clean it as this will help reduce the chances of

getting any infection. He also told us that Garrett may only have to

wear it for another month !

Our insurance company has denied our claim but we are going to fight

it, I am still in the process of gathering information to bombard

them with :-)

As soon as I get my scanner working again I will post a picture of

Garrett and his helmet. My husband didn't want to decorate it in

anything really babyish (I wanted Winnie the Pooh), so we bought some

racing stripes that you use for cars and skull and cross bones, and a

skull with flaming guitars as the crossbones. It looks quite cute

really and everyone thinks that it is a football helmet :-D Sorry

for being so long winded.

Garrett's Mum

[Guest guest]

,

Thanks for sharing Garrett's story and progress. It sounds like things are

going pretty well despite some ups and downs. Hopefully Garrett will be able

to graduate in a month and you will be all done with this experience!

Good to hear from you!

Marci (Mom to )

Oklahoma

[Guest guest]

:

It sounds like Garrett is doing great in his helmet! That would be

great if he is able to graduate in just one more month. Definitely

clean the helmet with alcohol, it does wonders to keep it clean as

well as help with odor problems if you're having any.

I hope you are able to get some pictures scanned so we can all see

how well he's progressed.

Sounds like you're a tad busy with a 13 yr old and a baby! Yikes. I

bet the 13 yr old helps plenty though, a 2nd mommy probably for

Garrett.

Be sure to keep us updated!

Debbie abby's mom DOCGrad

MI