2 months ago...
(yes, as in back in January)
As many of you know (or have personally observed), Luke was born with a misshapen head. One of our biggest challenges in the past two months has been getting Luke fitted with a helmet. Fortunately, the shape issues (caused from Luke's positioning during gestation...Clare was a womb hog!) have not caused Luke any problems with his growth and movement (babies with similar head shape issues typically require physical therapy).
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| This is a snapshot from Luke's 360 degree head scan viewed from above |
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| This is the head scan made into a math problem... it helped me understand the issue better! |
The helmet device (called a Doc band) has a good reputation (we know a few babies that have been 'helmeted') and success rate, so we were hoping to take this on as soon as possible. So, back in January, we started 'Helmetgate' and visited the Orthotics Department of Children's Hospital downtown to have Luke evaluated.
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| Clare entertained us in the waiting room... |
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| ...while Luke went for a ride in the dumptruck (legs up of course!) |
The specialist diagnosed Luke with having severe plagiocephaly (try saying this word 5 times fast...or even once) and recommended him to wear a helmet for 3-6 months to correct the distorted shape of his head. So, we scheduled a second appointment to have him measured the following week. After leaving Children's, we took a little stroll through the city
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| After seeing the temples of Bangkok, the twins were not so impressed by Chicago's Water Tower |
and grabbed some lunch at a Chicago institution, Gino's East.
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| Brother slept through lunch... |
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| ...while sister wondered when she can ditch the formula for french fries |
The twins and I returned to Children's a week later to have Luke's head measured for the helmet.
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| Luke's not the bonnet-wearing type of boy, apparently |
We were only a short week away from the delivery of Luke's helmet when a familiar obstacle in these types of situations, insurance, surfaced. When I initially called our provider, I was told that the insurance company would cover 85% of the costs for the pricey helmet with a diagnosis of severe (moderate wouldn't cut it, but thankfully Luke is severe) plagiocephaly. Unfortunately, when the hospital sent the insurance company an 18-page document that
contained Luke's evaluation and 'severe' diagnosis, our claim was (maybe not surprisingly) denied. After 3 weeks of phone tag with both the insurance company and an insurance advocate from Chris' company (which felt more like three weeks of 'is anyone doing anything to help us?'), we were
told the official determination:
Severe plagiocephaly is covered by the insurance company, however, it is not treated by the insurance company.
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| Poor Luke...already an insurance victim at 7 months |
Pardon my acronymization (yes, this is a
word...I looked it up), but WTF?? Thankfully, when Clare returned to our pediatrician for her 6-month checkup (she was sick when we took them both in the week before), our pediatrician gave us another company to contact called Cranial Technologies, (www.cranialtech.com) located in Lincoln Park. Cranial Tech provides a discount for those insured by certain (negligent) insurance companies like ours and we can now correct Luke's womb-induced deformity for half the cost, out-of-pocket, of the other hospital (we almost had to start a go fund me campaign!). While the reduced 'price tag' came as great news, it meant that all of the appointments we went through in the previous weeks had to be repeated again with the new facility. So, at our 'new' first appointment,
Luke waiting to start his second evaluation appointment
(he's definitely my son because this was my reaction exactly)
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| Clare's first experience with deja vu |
Luke was once again diagnosed with severe plagiocephaly.
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| Surprise, surprise! |
Nothing against Children's Hospital (we have used them many times before and will continue to do so), but the Cranial Tech facility and technology are really great. We even received a pdf report via email where we could rotate Luke's 'floating head' 360 degrees (Chris had fun showing this off to co-workers) to see the various angles of his 'deformity'. A week later, we returned to Cranial Tech to have him measured again for the helmet.
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| Waiting to be measured. Again. |
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| Keep your eye on the shiny object! (At this facility they actually took one photo with over a dozen cameras surrounding Luke) |
Finally, only 2 months after we started this journey, Luke received his customized helmet on St. Patrick's Day.
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| Separated at birth?!? Luke is our Man at Arms!! |
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| 'Watch it...I'm the only twin you got!' |
As they say, all's well that ends well and so far, so good. Luke has been wearing the helmet for 3 hours at a time to see how his head is adjusting. There are a few red spots (caused by the pressure of the helmet) that we watch to make sure they go away within an hour. Starting today, he will be wearing his helmet for 23 hours a day. We have been impressed by his adjustment and tolerance so far! We will now attend biweekly adjustment check ups and, hopefully, in a matter of a few months Luke's noggin will be 'normal'.
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| Clare's already taking good care of her brother (most likely out of guilt for taking up so much space)! |
We hope everyone gets used to seeing our little guy with his helmet in upcoming blog posts!
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| He probably could actually play football wearing this thing! |
