The Specialists

The Specialists' offices were hours away from our home so we decided to take the Little E and Baby Girl, our two youngest daughters, with us and leave Miss G (our oldest daughter) with Aunt Aud and Uncle Geoffery so she could go to school while we were gone.  The appt. was 8am so we decided to get a hotel room close by.  My mother came with us as a moral support and to help us with any questions that may arise. 

I woke up a 6am with a knot in my stomach.  I knew that today was going to be hard, no matter how much preparation I had done.  Why is it when we have to face reality head on it sometimes leaves you feeling numb?  I was glad that my Mom had come with us.  She is such a strength to me and has a way of helping me do what needs to be done.  We were all in the car by 7:30am driving to the children's hospital where our Craniofacial Surgical team's offices were.  I start to jot down all the questions that we had for the surgeons. 

Why didn't I have the list ready?   I asked myself the same question in the car as I was writing them down.  I don't think that I could stomach writing out the list until the very last second because it made all of this WAY TOO REAL.  All I really wanted to do is lean out of the car window and throw up. 

We found the offices, signed in and sat down in the waiting room.  As I sat there, I looked around at all the other children's heads and wondered why they were there:  for the same reason, had something else happened, would my daughter grow up and be as beautiful as that little girl.  We were one of the first patients to be taken back to the plastic surgeon's office.

Dr. M (plastic surgeon) and his team walked in the room and examined Baby Girl's head.  He took measurements and agreed that she does have sagittal craniosynostosis.  He handed me a binder with the information that I would need on her condition.  He and I discussed our options.

Endoscopic  vs Cranial Vault Reconstruction

I had done so much research that I knew most of the information that he gave us.  It was comforting to not have any surprises.  Once he met with us they had us meet with her Neurosurgeon, Dr. R.  When Dr. R came into the room we all were taken back a bit because he was so young.  No one expects a Neurosurgeon to be young. 

I learned something about Scott and myself that day.  I talk things out.  I study, listen and talk (a lot).  I was surprised because it didn't seem that Scott asked many questions while we were in the office.  Actually it kind of made me mad until we got in the car and Scott told me everything he had observed.  I was so busy discussing everything with the Dr.s that I didn't have time to observe them and our surroundings.  Scott was so busy observing that he didn't have time to ask the questions.  Alone he and I both would be in trouble...  but together we make a GREAT team! 

We left their offices realizing we had a very important decision ahead of us.  The Dr.s wouldn't tell us what they preferred they wanted us to make the difficult decision of what type of surgery they would perform on our Baby Girl.