The First Appointment with the Neurosurgeon

On September 4th we had a consultation with Dr. Myseros and found out Bryce had craniosynostosis. I had not prepared myself for this appointment at all and thought we were going to rule out that there were any major issues with him.  Boy was I wrong.  I had convinced myself that Bryce needed a doc band and was going to be in his helmet for a while and all would be better with his head.  So the day of his appointment was pretty shocking and intense to say the least.

We got to Dr. Myseros's office and went right in to see him.  He picked up Bryce looked him over for less than 30 seconds and said "your son has craniosynostosis." He asked me what I saw when I looked at him.  I told him, the ridge on the left side of his head and his face looks a little flat, his forehead isn't straight and his nose is slightly crooked.  I told him that I was worried about his eyes, that one looked set back and one looked squished.  He agreed with all those things and also pointed out that Bryce's ears are misaligned.  He said everything I pointed out are classic signs of craniosynostosis and that Bryce also had positional plagiocephaly.

He explained to us that the suture in his skull had closed prematurely and that he would need surgery to correct it.

Holy s#!t, surgery.  I couldn't believe it.  I started to tear up and freak out.  A million questions and terrible thoughts were running through my head about what my poor little guy was going to have to endure.  Why is this happening?  How are they going to fix him?  Will my sweet little boy have a normal life after surgery?  As I was attempting to keep the tears from rolling down my face, (which I failed at miserably) Ray and Dr. Myseros kept talking.  I heard some details but missed a whole lot more which I later found out from Ray...

Dr. Myseros explained that Bryce's brain was growing fine but since the left suture was closed the right side of his skull was getting pushed out more than it should be.  Of course we asked what caused it to close, and the doctor said it was congenital.  In his words, the premature closure "would have occurred months before Bryce was born" and there was nothing we could have done to prevent it.  It wasn't because of the way I carried him or because of anything that happened during his delivery.  We asked what the risks were if he didn't have the surgery. Chronic headaches, cognitive and motor delays were things we were not going to allow Bryce to suffer with for the rest of his life.  Not to mention Bryce looking funny.

He told us if we decided to have the surgery it would be performed at Children's Hospital in DC since the plastic surgeon, Dr. Rogers,  he works along with only operates there.  He also said he didn't want to answer too many more of our questions because Bryce needed a CT scan so he could be sure, but then he followed up by saying, "I'm never wrong."  

At the end of the appointment Dr. Myseros shook Ray's hand and gave me a hug and told me Bryce was going to be okay.