(soft music)
>> Finally, he came out. (shutter clicks)
My OB, who had helped deliver him,
she said gosh, he has a funky-looking head.
His head was shaped like a sideways football.
(baby laughs)
Elle is 2 1/2 years old, and Fitz is nine months old.
Elle and Fitz were both considered high-risk pregnancies.
We had a previous loss, a stillborn.
And I thought, gosh, did we miss something?
Really, it's not something
that you typically see on a sonogram.
So when his pediatrician came the next day to check him out,
she was the one who suspected, you know, something is wrong.
>> Man: Level five, neuroscientists and orthopedics.
>> I met Fitz when he was about five weeks old.
They came 'cause they'd been given a diagnosis
of craniosynostosis.
So they came, and they were obviously very concerned
and wanted to get as much information as possible
about how to treat him.
>> His case, this isn't a problem with the brain.
It's a problem with the skull.
One suture was fused.
You know, there's nowhere for the brain to grow.
His brain was growing where it could,
which was front and back.
He seemed fine like a happy, healthy kid,
but his brain was just growing.
>> With surgical therapy,
there's the more minimally invasive approaches
where we use the endoscope to assist us
versus the more classic open surgery.
>> Kim: It was good to have choices.
With his knowledge and experience, we trust him.
He was very comfortable doing the endoscopic one.
>> So, the main reason that people tend to go
with the less invasive option is, one,
it tends to be a shorter procedure with less blood loss,
two, with a shorter length of stay in the hospital.
So, for instance, Fitz was in the hospital overnight.
Surgically, we would make two incisions,
one in the front and one in the back.
And then remove the bone along the fused suture
from the anterior soft spot, or the soft spot in the front,
to the soft spot in the back.
The wounds are then closed with absorbable stitches,
so they don't need to be taken out.
And they go to the recovery room
and then to the normal hospital floor,
where usually they're discharged the following day.
>> We were in recovery with him,
and then he was wheeled to, I guess, the step-down unit.
I was really overwhelmed all of a sudden
just with how am I gonna nurse him.
He's attached to all these wires.
How is this all gonna work, and then it was just,
the staff in the step-down unit was just wonderful.
When we had our three-month followup,
I went back and gave them notes
to just thank them about how wonderful they were.
The day after surgery, Dr. Jackson came.
It was on a Saturday, and he came to check on us.
Seeing him there, and he laid eyes on Fitz,
and he seemed to think everything went fine in surgery.
He did great.
So just having that, I guess, realistic reassurance
that it was gonna be okay, I felt okay going home.
And it was okay.
>> Eric: With these procedures, however,
they do often require something else
to help reshape the head,
the most common of which is a helmet.
And they're followed at a clinic for helmet adjustments.
>> When we first were introduced to the helmet process,
I was very like, you know,
I wonder how this is gonna go.
But just kind of knowing already
that he was already sleeping for long stretches of time,
I was very surprised about that, that he was fine.
So that actually was a lot easier than I thought,
and we don't think anything of it
because having a helmet on is what he's used to.
He doesn't know anything different.
I learned that it was so helpful
for us to do the research ahead of time,
and finding the experts that you really trust,
and then going with your trust.
It's turned out to be a really positive experience
from something that we were scared of
and didn't know much about at first.
>> Man: Can I get this kiss? (baby coos)