Two Weeks Post-Op

This morning we sent our first set of photos to Dr. Taylor for his review, to see how Leah is progressing and how much the distractor has changed the shape of her skull. We have turned the distractor 13.5mm, which is about a half of an inch. In the photos below, you can see the change. It's a bit difficult to really see much progress, especially because the distractor is still pulling her skin away from her head. But you can see that her eye is no longer visible on the right hand side when looking at her face from this perspective, so there is a bit of a difference.

We are really pleased with the way her incision is healing. The stitches are all still in place, and thought they are dissolvable, we know it may take several weeks for them not to be noticeable. We are still taking care of her incision by cleaning it and by applying bacitracin to cut down on the risk of infection, but we will soon transition to "scar care"and will focus on massaging her incision rather than treating it with topical antibiotics. The site of the distractor is a bit more difficult to care for, as it is essentially a fresh wound every time we turn it. It still bleeds, so we are coping with that by placing a clean cloth diaper under her head whenever we put her down.

We are also managing the distractor by putting hats on her as much as possible. Not only does that reduce the risk of exposing it to germs from something like a cough or a sneeze, but it is also helping our other kids to keep from seeing it. They have each seen it at least once, but neither of them like it, and still ask if she is wearing a hat before they enter the room. Ironically, the only person in the family who is not bothered by the distractor is Leah!