Zachary's Surgery

Most people know, but Zachary was born with a condition called sagital craniosynostosis. The short version? The top two plates in his skull were fused together. He had to have surgery to avoid possible brain damage and certain head deformities. So on December 10th we took our sweet 10 week old baby in to the children's hospital and he got a craniectomy. A pediatric neurosurgeon removed the effected parts of his skull. Now he has a softspot the size of TEXAS!

I was a mess in the weeks leading up to the surgery, Alan and I were both scared to death to send our tiny newborn baby in for such a major procedure. But we are now a week post opp and Zachary is doing awesome. We were in the ICU for 4 days but he had relatively minimal swelling and pretty much no bruising. We feel very blessed that it has gone so well. His incisions are healing well and I think the scars will be small. He is basically back to his happy self. Kids are so resilient.

Now he as to wear a helmet for the next 6 months to a year to properly re-shape his head. We went in for our consult yesterday and he got measured. The helmet should be ready before Christmas. I ordered a green and brown camouflage so Zachary will look really manly.

Here are some pix: at the peak of his swelling, profile before, profile after, top before, top after.
The pictures don't really do the change justice. When he came out of surgery he looked like a different person to us. We'll see how much if any the helmet changes his head shape!