Making Slow Progress

Things have been pretty quiet for Mason which is just the way we like it.  His eczema is still a major visitor that won’t go away.  We’re doing all we can.  You can tell it bothers him in his sleep, he wakes up several times a night itching, which means mommy is a bit sleep deprived.  Mason is doing amazingly awkward things physically now. I am so proud of him and so worried that he’s going to break or dislocate a limb. He has figured out a few ways to go from lying on his belly to sitting himself up (still using his arms to prop once he’s up). All of these involve pushing into contortions until his legs turn the way he wants.  Then he reverses the process.

He had a checkup today with Dr. P from the Cranio-facial/Plastic Surgery Department.  Today’s visit was mainly to see how Mason’s head shape is doing.  He’s had a bit of plagiocephaly (flat spot on skull) since early on because he would not lay on his shunt side.  The good news is his head is evening out and we’ll continue our conservative treatment plan.  He won’t need to see us again for this, our neurosurgeon will let him know if things change. 

Dr. P is also the plastic surgeon who helped our neurosurgeon close his back the day Mason was born.  It took some creative stitching to get enough skin to the area to leave Mason room to grow/stretch and he ended up with two ‘dog ears’ – flaps of skin at either end of his scar.  These have been left in place to accommodate the swift growth of this first year.  One has flattened out a lot, the other has not.  The plan is to check again in 6 months, at which point we could do a short surgery to trim off any excess skin that has not flattened down if we wish.