Audrey's Helmet

Six days after her surgery, Audrey got her first helmet. She will probably have 3 helmets in total as she will out grow them. We gradually let her get used to wearing it through four hour intervals. The first day she wore it one hour and had it off for 3 hours. Each day we added an hour wearing it. By Saturday she was wearing it for the required 23 hours a day. She gets an hour break each night for a bath and a little play time. Her head sweats pretty good in the helmet and it gets a little smelly. So while she gets a bath, her helmet gets a good washing.

As the helmet is clear plastic, a couple of my friends decided to decorate it up for her. Julie and Clarisse came over one night and painted it pink and added some stickers and rhinestones. Every little girl needs a little bling! They did a terrific job and I get lots of comments on how cute the helmet is. Thanks Julie and Clarisse!!!

Surgery

August 14th came really fast and before we knew it, we were sitting in the pre-op area of University Hospital at 6:00am. Audrey was asleep in her car seat and had no clue what was going to happen. Then the nurses, anesthesiologists, and doctors started coming in to see how we were doing, going over the procedure, and asking us if we had any questions. Audrey woke up and was started "talking" away. I guess she thought she'd charm the doctors first. It made us laugh, which was great considering the situation.

I have to say that the anesthesiologists and doctors made me feel so good about everything. I am the first to admit that I am a very emotional person and I didn't cry at all while she was in surgery. Dave said that's what they are supposed to do. I told him that they are very good at what they do then.

The surgery only lasted 42 minutes!! After the surgery she was taken to the PICU where she was going to spend the night and where we got to see her for the first time, which was about 2 hours after they took her to surgery. I have to say that it's a really scary thing to see your beautiful baby laying in a big hospital crib attached to monitors. The doctors said the surgery went perfectly and she was doing great.

The day of surgery was a really long one. There was about 3 hours where Audrey was crying pretty constantly before the morphine kicked in. But once it did, she started doing great and we were able to leave by noon the next day.

She looked pretty rough a for a couple days following surgery. We thought she looked like she was in a boxing match. As the days progressed, she started looking more like herself and was back to her old self. You would never have guessed she had surgery days before.

Craniosynostosis

On July 9th, Audrey was diagnosed with a condition known as Sagittal Craniosynostosis. When babies are born, the skull is divided into 5 different areas. The spaces in between the areas are called sutures. The divisions allow the head to grow as the brain grows. Audrey's sagittal suture, the one on the top of her head, had prematurely closed. What this was doing was causing her head to grow thin and long instead of round and thus putting pressure on her brain.

We were referred to a neurosurgeon here in San Antonio named Dr. David Jiminez. We were completely stunned when we were told she needed to have surgery. The thought never crossed our mind that surgery was even a possibility. We thought the worst would be that she'd have to wear a helmet for a while and that's it. We walked out of his office in a complete daze and I was crying all night long.

Once the shock wore off a bit, we finally sat down and discussed our options. It turned out that Dr. Jiminez pioneered a new way of doing this surgery that is less invasive with a very short recovery period. There would only be two small incisions on her head and they would use endoscopes and basically a specialized pair of scissors to re-open the suture. She would then be required to wear a helmet for a year. The other option would be to make an incision from ear to ear, pull back the scalp and re-build the skull. After thinking about these two options, the decision was obvious. Surgery was scheduled for August 14th with Dr. Jiminez.

Audrey's First Swim

Audrey had her first dip in the pool at 3 months old. First we had to sunbathe on the deck and once we got in, I think she quite enjoyed it. She was smiling and kicking the water. We had such a great time, it complely wiped her out.

Hollywood Audrey

After we left the hospital, Audrey got a touch of jaundice. The pediatrician said that we had to sit with her in indirect sunlight. So we found a window that the sun was shining in and let her bathe in the sun. She loved it! I guess the warmth of the sun felt great. I couldn't help putting on her shades while she sunbathed. Our little Hollywood baby.