Bring on the Helmet!

I am sure many of you are wondering how it went yesterday at the Brace Shop. Let me start with our morning. Brian had PT at 8 a.m. This meant I had to wake him up, which he's okay about when it happens, but very cranky about as the day progresses. Due to this, he was a bit cranky at PT, instead of being all smiles like last week. Elizabeth, the PT, says he's doing really well though! His left turn radius (chin to shoulder) was 60% last week and is now 80%, which is considered all the way. She said it's due to all of our work at home! Anyway, we only have to go back every two weeks since we did our homework, which is nice. We got 2 more exercises to do 5 times daily (for 5 minutes each). Both are on the exercise ball, which Brian thinks is pretty entertaining! So now we are up to 4 exercises 5 times a day. 2 take 30 seconds a piece if he cooperates, and the other two take 5 minutes each.

After PT, we headed home for a much needed nap (for both of us, I didn't sleep much Sunday night). We both slept for about 30 minutes (not nearly enough time) before heading out to the Brace Shop. Now, I am sure I sound cynical when I say that many people whose kids need these caps, are in the situation because they are crappy parents who leave their kids lay all day long. I might sound cynical, but it's purely an observation based on the waiting room yesterday, which was very depressing and made me feel like a crappy parent just from being in the company of the others. One of the crappy parents made me even more nervous by telling me that Brian would hate the helmet and cry all the time. Just to justify my crappy parent comments, this particular woman had a 2 year old, 10 month old (in helmet) and a baby in NICU that had only made it to 26 weeks. She reeked of smoke and so did the man with her. The father of the 10 month old was definitely not the father of the 2 year old and the mom was kind of slow to be honest. This may all seem mean to say, but I am still upset about how upset she managed to get me before Brian and I headed in to get his helmet.

Anyway, we finally headed in to the helmet fitting room and Greg, the orthotist, gave me some instructions and then went to work on the helmet. The helmets come in with tiny ear holes, so the orthotist has to adjust it by making marks with a crayon and then going somewhere to cut it. So, he put in on Brian's head, made marks, took it off, and disappeared for awhile. Brian did not seem to care about this initial encounter. Greg had to adjust it a second time, and then he put the helmet on for good (or for an hour really because the first day it's an hour on, an hour off all day long). Again, Brian didn't seem to care. After asking all of my questions, we were out the door with the helmet on.

Then we got in the car. Now remember, Brian isn't the best traveler on earth. He was also very tired and hungry and with the sun coming in the back window, his new helmet was very hot. I made the mistake of trusting our GPS to get me home and we were in the car about 20 minutes longer than necessary because of that mistake. I still don't know if the GPS chick got me lost, or if I did it myself by not being able to hear hear over the screaming child in the backseat. Either way, we were pretty lost. And, yes, there was a screaming child in my backseat. He cried the entire way home :(

So needless to say I was tired, hungry and well over the edge by the time we arrived at the house. Brian wasn't much better! However, once inside, I put him down to play with his toys, and he was just fine. Smiley and normal. He ate his lunch (sweet potatoes-his favorite) without any fuss, and then it was time to take the helmet off.

The day went on pretty much as normal-except that I was taking the helmet on and off Brian's head every hour. Brian was just fine. He smiled at any people we saw, and they smiled back. He played and slept and ate, all like normal. I'm really not sure he even noticed he had the helmet on. Today, I'm happy to report, has been much of the same. (Today by the way is 2 hours on, 1 hour off all day long). I'm so glad I have a calm, happy and cool kid! He keeps Mommy sane :)

The new cap requires a little more work on my part. It has to be washed daily, as does his head to cut down on stinkiness. Apparently he will be sweating quite a bit at least for the first 2 weeks, so keeping it clean is key. For the next several days I have to keep a schedule (on for some amount of time, then off for some amount of time). Also, we have to go back to the Orthotist on Monday to have it checked and then every 3 weeks as long as he has it. However, overall, it hasn't been as bad as it could have been. Now, he hasn't had to sleep in it yet, so I'll let you know how that goes! Wish me luck!!