Ben’s Magic Helmet

Continuing with the meandering mind flashback…

For this one lets back up to last October.  Ben had been diagnosed with plagiocephaly (flat head syndrome) & needed to have cranial helmet treatment. This meant wearing his Magic Helmet 24/7  for 5 months.  We thought of the helmet as the 4th member of our little family :)

What a journey this was from taking Ben to the hospital to have 3D pics of his skull done, the casting appointment for the helmet, taking care of the helmet, the crack-of-dawn helmet appointments, & the interaction with the public about why Ben was wearing the helmet.

I think this story is best told in pictures.  Here we go—

In order to determine if Ben was a candidate for helmet therapy & didn’t need corrective surgery, the docs wanted to see inside his head.  And so the process began.  First thing to do was a 3D CT Scan of the happenings of Ben’s skull.  The results came back that Ben didn’t need to have the surgery & having helmet therapy was the way to go.  Whew.  Thank goodness!

Next, the oh-so-memorable casting of his head for the Magic Helmet appointment.  I’ll never forget that day.  I was super glad that the casting only took about 20 minutes.  Ben was not a happy camper :(  Would you be happy if someone dumped some sort of plaster all over your head to make a mold of it?

Then, we got the Magic Helmet mid-December.  Let the Magic begin!!!  Ben really adjusted to the helmet quite quickly.  Hooray!!!  We were soooo happy that part was easy.  He loved wearing it.  As the days and months went by, we thought it became his lovie.

Memories that stick out during this time…

I would always introduce Ben as the future #1 NFL Draft Pick! :)

While we were in the airport during the holidays, Niki Taylor & her husband chatted with Jeff & I about Ben’s Magic Helmet.  On another plane trip, Ben got a smile & a head nod from Scott Hamilton.

We learned that the helmet should NOT be worn @30,000 feet in the air.  Baby in helmet = swelling of helmet on baby’s head!  And, trying to yank that thing off mid-flight was an experience.  I’m sure the other passengers on the plane where thinking… What the heck are they doing to that baby?! Don’t worry, no harm to either the baby or the helmet.  Lesson learned.

It was always pretty cute going to Ben’s helmet appointments and seeing all of the other baby’s in their helmets.  They all looked like they were part of a football team!

From the ‘Seriously?!’ or ‘Really?!’ category…

People are really funny.  During this time, I felt like I always wanted to make a public announcement ‘why’ Ben was wearing the helmet.  Really just to stop all the whispering about why they thought he had it on.  I had one lady approach me and say how sorry she was my baby had brain surgery.  What?! ?!

This is just a sample of the helmet stories.  It’s funny, just when we were really getting used to the helmet, that’s when it was time for it to come off.  On a very early morning in May, we got the most awesome news that Ben no longer needed to wear the helmet.  Hooray!!!  We were sooooo very excited that this chapter was over.  What a journey.  What a happy day!!!  And, most importantly, we were happy to see the results of what the Magic Helmet had done.  Excellent work Magic Helmet.  Excellent work.

I don’t really have any great before/after pics.  Trust me, the helmet really worked some Magic!  Check out some of my favorite pics of Ben wearing this wonder of a helmet.  You can really see him growing up from little baby to becoming a toddler.  And now that he’s toddling around, I sort of wish I could put the helmet back on his head!

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