Noggin Update and a Special Brother

Nicholas had his appointment with the orthotics company that will be making his cranial band yesterday. It was more of an introductory appointment in order for them to determine just how great his need was and also to gather all of the information they will need to get the pre-authorization from our insurance company. Mike said it was a lot of measuring and pictures and a questionnaire for parents to fill out. One of the questions that the parents were asked to answer was on a scale of zero to five how great do you believe the severity of deformity does your child have - where zero is no deformity at all and five is the most severe. Mike answered four to that question. After he was done measuring and taking pictures, Mike asked the expert what he would have answered on that question for Nicholas. The answer was that Nicholas was definitely a five. And that he was the worst head deformity the expert had ever seen. For someone in the business and who makes cranial bands all the time that was a slightly disheartening piece of knowledge. 

The good news is that we don't know just how successful this will be. We were told the band should be able to help with the flatness in the back of his head but they aren't sure how successful it will be in removing the cone shape at the back. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst seems to be the motto we live with Nicholas and he honestly has surprised us most of the time by landing on the better side of the equation so we will just step back right now and hope that this helps him. 

They have also asked us to cut his hair since he has so much of it. I'm a little sad that his first haircut will be at 6 months old but if that's what he needs to be better then that's something I'm willing to do. 

I recently took Zach out to a fun place to play since he doesn't always get to have so much fun between therapy and doctor appointments, hospital stays, and other things that revolve around having a child with high medical needs. When we got there, he was the only child (besides his siblings) there to play. About 20 minutes in, another child and his mother came in. I was playing with the twins in the baby area and Zach immediately approached the other child to play. They engaged in games and both had no problem running with the other's imagination. They were dinosaurs, and race car drivers, and train engineers, and running from snakes. After they had been playing for awhile the other child's mother approached me and asked if Zach had other friends or someone in his life with autism. I answered that he did not (to my knowledge). She looked shocked. She said he's so good with my son. She told me that Zach was the first child he had actually played with. She explained that he usually played next to other children but she had never seen him engage with another child the way he was doing with Zach. I'm not sure if he's just more sensitive, if he is meant to work with special needs children, or if maybe he just clicked with this child but Zach seems to have an ability to see beyond a "disability" and just see the person. Again I hope that's a kindness and a skill that he carries far into adulthood.