welcome grier - ooops

[Guest guest]

i hope i didn't post twice - sorry if so!

grier,

my name is traci and my 5.5 month old son, alec, just got his helmet

yesterday! we too aren't seeing the CT people we got the helmet from

Cleveland Clinic Foundation

anyway - i just wanted to say hello and let you know we're kinda in

the same boat right now and i'm sure we could be a great help to each

other with the paddling

traci & alec

feel free to e-mail me personally too!

traecer @ hotmail.com

(no spaces of course)

> Hi, everyone! My name is Grier and I have a son, Chandler, who is

> just over 5 months and has positional plagiocephaly. All

throughout

> my pregnancy, Chandler was breech and refused to " make the turn " .

> Due to hypertension, he was delivered by c-section about 4 weeks

> early. I am very petite (5 feet) and I could tell that Chandler

was

> very restricted in the womb during his last couple of months due to

> my short torso and I feel like that had a lot to do with his

> torticollis. No one at our hospital recognized the torticollis,

even

> though Chandler refused to turn his head to the left. Instead, all

> of my nurses and doctors just showed me how to nurse around the

fact

> that he wouldn't turn to the left. Unfortunately, even though I

> consider myself pretty well-educated, I continued to hold Chandler

in

> a way that allowed him to continue favoring his right side and he

> always slept facing the right. Obviously, now I know that we

> probably could have prevented the whole plagio issue had this been

> recognized by our pediatricians earlier than they did. Luckily, the

> doctor we saw at his 2 month appointment recognized the torticollis

> and plagiocephaly. We immediately began the stretches and

> repositioning therapy that very day and were amazed that Chandler

> ended up with full range of motion in only a few weeks. The

flatness

> on his right side has also improved, but his ears are still out of

> alignment. We had an appointment with a neurosurgeon who advised

us

> that even though Chandler's case of plagio is mild, he urged us to

> consider putting him in a helmet and wrote us a prescription. Last

> week, we had Chandler's casting done, which went much easier than I

> had expected- -no tears at all until he was all clean and decided

he

> didn't want to put his clothes back on (ha, ha). Oh, I forgot to

> mention that we live in eastern NC and are quite a ways from the

> nearest CT, so we have chosen to go with an experienced ortho that

> our neurosurgeon recommended who makes the helmets himself. Today

at

> 3:30pm we will be having the helmet fitting and I am having mixed

> emotions- -happy to finally be on our way with getting a rounder

> head, but also worried about how Chandler will adjust. I've been

> reading posts on this board for several months and the messages

that

> I've read have really helped me. None of you realized I was out

there

> because I wasn't posting, but I just wanted each of you to know how

> wonderful it is knowing that there is a place I can turn when I

need

> support.

>

> Oh yeah, I would like to know if any of your " plagio babies " were

> breech? I'm just curious if that really may have had something to

do

> with this.

>

> Thanks for listening!!! I'll post again tomorrow and update

everyone

> on how our first night with the helmet went.

>

> Grier

> Mom to Chandler (5 months- -In helmet as of 7/11/02)