Yeah Baby, you did it!

  Well, what seemed to be a long journey has officially come to and end for us. Amelia has graduated from her band! She completed her treatment on October 5th and we had her exit appointment and final adjustment the week before. She had the Dsi imaging done for the last time and once again she did not go along with the process. I don't think she feels that wearing a stocking over her head is a great fashion statement!  Anyways, she survived the process and the final images were put side by side with the original pictures. We noticed that her head shape is much longer than it was previously and also the front right side of her head had filled out quite a bit along with her filling out on the bottom of the left backside.

The picture below is of the mold they made of Amelia's head at the start of her treatment. I decided to show pictures of the helmet on the mold because you can see more clearly the changes to her head shape.  At the clinic they call these little guys "headsicles."  They would put this mold next to her at the adjustments and see which areas she was making progress in. I know I'm a little weird, but I thought it was really neat to be able to keep this rock hard statue of Amelia. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but it's neat to be able to have a preserved, tangible piece of her at 4 months old.

 

The next picture is of the top of the molds head. The gaps that I circled shows exactly how much her head has grown in the flattened areas. When she started the treatment the foam was completely level and then it was shaved down in the problem areas every week. That's a lot of growth in 9 weeks!

 

 

You can also see from this front view the large gaps where her head is now filled in.

 

 

This whole treatment process has been a huge blessing in our lives. Thanks to the internet and good friend of mine (who gave me a DOC Band pamphlet that she saw in her doctor's office,) I became aware of what plagiocephaly was. I have learned that you have to become a diligent advocate for your child in order to see results sometimes. I think we are all brought up in a society where you take your doctor's word as final and are scared to go against their advice. Amelia's first doctor told us her head would reshape on her own and not to worry about it. I'm so glad we got a second opinion! She was just plain wrong on this one. 

I also want to thank the staff at the Phoenix office. I felt that Amelia was in great hands the entire time.