Cranio

  Well we had the long awaited appointment with the plastic surgeon yesterday and it was less than climactic. He told us how he would be performing the surgery and the recovery time frame to expect but still no dates or even an estimate of dates. She will have one surgery and that will be to graft the hole where the Encephalocele was. As far as a reconstructive surgery to round out her head, he feels it would be more a cosmetic procedure than anything so we have decided to opt out of that one. Her head is flat in the back but it's not inhibiting brain growth which was my main concern, if anything is inhibiting brain growth it's her shunt which I will be talking to Dr. Levy about next month. So, I will break the procedure down for you with a sorry excuse for an illustration :)

He will cut the bone in a zig zag sort of pattern and bring them together over the hole so there is very little need for anything foreign or artificial. This may leave some gaps depending on how he is able to cut in which case he will use cadaver bone as children tend to reject anything artificial as they grow. Dr. Cohen said as Naysa's head grows there is a chance a gap may form again but most likely it will be small enough a second procedure won't be necessary, it will be watched closely just to be sure. The recovery is fairly quick and should everything go smoothly her hospital stay will only be 2-3 days. We see Dr. Levy April 23rd so hopefully we can get things moving along after we see him, I'd really like her to have had surgery and be recovered by August before her baby brother comes so she can enjoy and bond with him. Speaking of the girl, I think I just heard a little squeal of hers which means she is awake from her morning nap :) Gotta go play!