Absolutely Delightful

(The photos above are not my children.)

Madam Poopsalot has plagiocephaly. Muffin had plagiocephaly too. Both noticed within a couple of weeks after birth. What exactly is plagiocephaly, you ask?

plagiocephaly (plā´jēōsef´lē),
n a condition characterized by an asymmetrical skull with flat spots. Temporomandibular joint disorder, as well as auditory and visual disturbances, may result if left untreated. If diagnosed during infancy, the condition can be treated with cranial orthotics.

Basically, it’s a crooked head. Both Madam Poopsalot and Muffin’s plagiocephaly happened in utero. I guess that’s just the way I make my babies. Mommy is sorry, my sweet babies. However, if we have to have a “problem”, this is a good one to have and I am very grateful for that.

Madam Poopsalot is now 4 months old and we have not been able to resolve her crookedness. It is harder to resolve plagiocephaly that occurred in utero. So, despite our best efforts at crazy amounts of tummy-time, our little MP is going to be getting ‘banded’.

Our insurance will likely pay this time (they didn’t for Muffin even though his plagiocephaly was moderate to severe and he was 3 standard deviations from normal). We banded him anyways and are very glad that we did. He was only 3.75 months old when we did it so he only had to wear the band for about 7 weeks, as we were able to benefit from a few growth spurts due to his young age. Back then, the decision was a bit agonizing but in the end what clinched it for me was reading stories of adults who live with plagiocephaly and how it has negatively impacted their lives. Issues ranging from severe self-consciousness, to chronic headaches, to vision problems, to not being able to wear eye glasses because the ears are so uneven. It really solidified my feelings that we had to do this for him. I didn’t want Muffin coming to me 10 years from now, upset asking us why we didn’t fix his head when we had the chance (you can’t do anything after they are 2 years old). I didn’t want him to come to me and ask me why I didn’t help him when I could have and why bike helmets won’t fit him, or why sunglasses (or eye glasses) can’t seem to reach his other ear. I didn’t want him to have vision problems, or jaw problems. And I certainly didn’t want him to be so self-conscious about his asymmetrical face that it affected his interactions with the world. He may be self-conscious about other things when he’s older, but it won’t be for something that I could have fixed for him. How could I say to him, “Pumpkin, your head is asymmetrical. We could have fixed it when you were a baby, but we just didn’t want you to have to wear a helmet 23.5 hours a day for 6-10 weeks. Also, it was $3500.00, so we passed. Get over it.”

No, we could not do that to him. So, we got him the Doc Band and insurance (Blue Shield) didn’t cover it. I wrote a super-tight and awesome 20 page appeal but it was denied. Essentially, they just didn’t cover it at all no matter how bad the asymmetry was. Our insurance this time will cover it. Aetna, you are my hero. We are an HMO now though, so our medical group has to approve it first. We will do it even if they decide not to cover it, of course. Now, I have to wait for a week or so to hear whether or not they will approve it. Each week that goes by, we loose precious growth time and the treatment outcome decreases, while the length of time having to wear the band increases. So, we’ll wait for them to approve it…but only for a couple of weeks. I don’t want this to be a long drawn-out process. It can’t be. I don’t want my kid’s face to end up on the side of her head while we go through the Deny & Appeal Dance.

A couple of photos of Muffin’s casting process. Very traumatic and now they do it digitally. Thank God!

And here he is with his band. He wore it for 7 weeks. Sure, we got stares, but worst of all was the silence. Up until that point, people would approach him and talk to him and smile at him (he was a pretty cute baby and I’m not at all biased). However, after he got his band people would look away and not make eye contact and not talk to him. That for me was the worst.