Helmet On

Last week I was encouraged because it seemed like my sweet, happy baby was back.  Irrationally I had worried that they changed Matthew's personality when they touched his brain. Thankfully they didn't.  I'm glad we had a few days of our old, sweet and happy baby because he's no longer happy.  He's adjusting to his helmet, has a double ear infection and is teething.  He's not feeling great and letting us know it.

Yesterday Matthew got his helmet.  They recommend easing into the 23 hours a day requirement.  Yesterday was 1 hour in the helmet and 1 hour out throughout the day.  Today is 2 hours in and 1 hour out.  Tomorrow is 4 hour stretches.  Sunday is 8 hours.  Monday he'll start wearing it for 23+ hours a day for the next 2.5 months.  I think that we might have been a little lax about the helmet and the 23 hours requirement but thankfully we met a little boy who had this surgery and seeing him made us commit to being militant about the helmet.  A few months of pain for a lifetime of gain.  Well worth it. 

Yesterday, when the helmet was on, Matthew was crying or asleep.  I wanted to take a picture of Mattie in the helmet, and figured he would be screaming, but the moment I took the camera out, he shot me the ear to ear grin.  Ah...classic conditioning!  He knows when the camera is out, Mommy and Daddy will do whatever they can to make him smile.  Now we don't even have to do anything, he associates the camera with happiness. 

Yesterday I was counting down the moments till we could take the helmet off and today has been a bit better.  I'm sure Matthew will adjust to the helmet soon.  As well, thankfully he is scheduled for ear tubes next Tuesday.  Those two things should make Matthew happier (and us too). 

We were trying to have the doctors coordinate the ear tubes with Matthew's upcoming urological surgery, but between having issues getting the urological surgery scheduled (first open date at the end of March) and the fact that Matthew has yet another ear infection in both ears, we decided to get tubes ASAP.  That is scheduled for Tuesday morning and the urology surgery is scheduled for March 28.  Now we are just working down the surgical list and hoping all of these simpler surgeries go off without complication!

While at the pediatricians yesterday, we were referred to an opthamologist.  Just recently, Matthew has been crossing his eyes and moving them asynchronously.  The opthamologist we had been referred to has been known to have a long waiting list, but thankfully the wonderful scheduler whom I've gotten to know quite well in the last 10 months helped us find an unpublished opening, so Matthew will see the opthamologist next week too.  Busy week! I pray it will be a good one for us and all of our family and friends!