Cranial Technology

Yesterday was CJ's evaluation to see if he's a candidate for a helmet or doc band for his misshaped head. We went to a place called Cranial Technologies for this. They were very nice and we got seen right away.

We went back and first they took pictures and measurements of CJ's head shape from all different angles. We got to bring home those pictures. I do not have a scanner, but I took a picture of the pictures with my camera so you can see just what his odd shaped head looks like.



So here is all the medical mumbo jumbo about his head. He has Plagiocephaly of the right side and Brachycephaly on the back of his head. So what this means is the back right of his head is flattened and the left front on his forehead is flattening too. So because his head was restricted on the back it got pushed in on the back and has thus caused some asymmetry on the front as well. He is mild on their scale, but he does qualify for treatment with the Doc Band.

This is not something that can correct on its own at this point in time. If he were younger then we could try some repositioning, but because of his age it just won't work. Now we don't have to do this. His head will continue to grow in this misshaped manner though, but it won't hurt him in anyway. The only thing we would have to worry about is fitting a bike helmet to his head in the future if we were to leave it like this. We'd have to add some extra padding. Now this Doc Band is still relatively new so there are no studies on the effects of it on a child beyond preschool age. Up until preschool age though there are no signs of there causing any sort of hearing or vision problems in children who have worn it and it seems to have no effect on the development of the brain. CJ would need to wear the helmet for 12-14 weeks though 23 hours a day.

Right now we are waiting on the approval from the insurance company. They do cover 100% of this treatment which is great and they don't need a whole lot to do that approval. We just need the doctor to write a note of medical need and a prescription for the Doc Band and we are good to go. The person I spoke to about this yesterday said it usually takes the doctor's office like 2 or 3 days to get them this stuff and then another week for the insurance to approve it. Trying to see if I could speed the process along I called the doctor's office to let them know that we are definitely interested in continuing with this and they told me they were working on it then and it should be a week before they are done with their part. Hmmmm, that was a bit discouraging. But maybe they just wanted to give themselves that extra time so I'm not calling them everyday or something asking where the stuff is. I've found their office to be really good so far about getting things done right away so I'm hoping it won't take too long.

Once the insurance is all on board with this though we can then schedule the appointment to have the Doc Band fitted to his head. This process is going to include taking a mold of his head. That should be interesting. And it looks like CJ will be wearing this until just about his first birthday. I'm hoping we'll get to have it off in time for his first birthday. What a great birthday present that would be. A nice round head helmet free for the newly turned 1 year old.

All in all things went well. They were very nice and helpful. They assured us that since it only weighs 6 ounces that it's not going to effect him in reaching any of his developmental milestones. He'll still be able to learn to sit and crawl and walk with this on. So we are very anxious to get this whole process started. It's just too bad that there's not a Cranial Technologies closer to us. This is an hour away from us and the next one is in New Jersey. Luckily there is lots to do down there though. We should get to know the area well since we'll be down there every other week.