First of all, we met with Dr. Tsao, our pediatric surgeon, yesterday. In case I have not sung his praises enough, this guy is amazing! He has truly taken an interest in Hayes, and he strives to always do what is best for our situation - regardless of the timeline or what may be conventional. That being said, he has decided to meet Hayes's changing needs by altering the course that we had originally set out on. To give you just a little bit of background, we had originally planned to do a staged surgery by putting the omphalocele back in and bringing the muscles together a little bit at a time. This means that he would have to undergo 3, 4, or maybe even 5 surgeries over the course of his first few years of life. Not ideal, but a price we were willing to pay to ensure that we were handling things as conservatively as possible and without compromising his lungs or other vital organs. Well...our little rockstar has once again done amazing things that lead us to completely change our plans! After Dr. Tsao gave Hayes a thorough examination yesterday, he found that his abdominal muscles are actually doing really well on their own and that the size of the opening is becoming relatively smaller the bigger that he gets. (All of those baby sit-ups are finally paying off!!) Now, this does not mean that the omphalocele will self-repair, but it does open up the door for an innovative new procedure called component separation technique. To put it simply, the abdominal muscle layers are separated to give the abdomen more room to work with and gain full closure in (hopefully) just one surgery. Although this type of repair is common among adults, it has just recently begun being used with pediatric omphalocele repair. This made it challenging to find resources and literature on the topic, but I did stumble upon this inspirational case study that gave me warm fuzzies...
Surgical Case Study: A Two-Step Correction of Infant's Omphalocele
So, guess what we do now?? If you said wait, then you are correct! Dr. Tsao wants Hayes to get even bigger and even stronger before undergoing such a major procedure. However, there is a little bit of homework involved during this time of waiting. Starting this evening, we will begin compression wrapping the O to encourage the organs to start migrating into his abdomen. Nothing major, just squeezing his bandages a little bit tighter and going back to the ole' ACE bandage method rather than simply covering it up. I know that Hayes will not be excited about this, but we want him to be in prime condition for our next appointment on November 28th!
Hayes loves Dr. Tsao, so much that he likes to impersonate his examinations at home!
Now, onto the helmet update! A few weeks ago, we decided to transfer Hayes's cranial care to Dr. Teichgraeber. We decided to make this change for a few reasons - 1. He is in the same office as Dr. Tsao, which makes coordination of care so much easier. 2. He specializes in pediatric craniofacial reconstruction. 3. He is the best! I knew all of these things going in to our initial appointment, but meeting with him for the first time reassured me that we made a great decision in transferring! He quickly put all of my worries and fears at ease, and he gave me some much needed confidence for jumping the whole plagiocephaly hurdle. At our initial appointment, we decided to hold off on the helmet until Hayes recovered from his first surgery. (No need to completely traumatize the sweet boy!) But, now that our entire surgery schedule has shifted...the plan for the helmet has too! We are now moving full speed ahead with the helmet fitting, and Hayes and I will be making yet another trip down to the medical center tomorrow for his final head scan before getting his helmet. They typically take about two weeks to make, so you can expect pictures of him in his newest wardrobe accessory around the middle of October! Stay tuned...
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