The procedure in which we are going about making Gabe's head bigger is called Craniofacial Distraction Osteogenesis. In generic terms they go in, crack his head like an egg, use sutures to loosely hold the fracture bones in place, attach wires to the fractured bones and pull them out of the skin. Those wires are then attached to a helmet. (in our case) You then manually make the head larger over the course of time. By manually, I mean, *I* (mommy) turn the key device twice a day. We just started doing that today. So, I am not completely sure what the pain scale will be in this. We are also allowing the brain to distract a section of bone over the top of Gabe's parasagittal sinus itself.
Wires coming out of the skin on the skull, attached to a spring that will provide a constant tension of "250" at all times (this is an orthodontic spring) that is now attached to a spring ring clasp. (It was attached to a fishing swivel)
We are already seeing some improvements:
Front of head:
Day of Surgery 6/24/09
2 weeks 2 days post op
The forhead is much more round as are the temples!
More to come later!
1 comment:
Wow! I can see there a difference especially at the temples. I am so happy to see his cute dimples back too.
Hugs sweet Gabe, you are such a trooper!!
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