If A Tree Falls In Your Front Yard While You’re Sleeping, Can You Still Hear It?

For all you non-philosophical types, the answer is no.

This morning we woke up to our third unexpected tree loss in two years here on the farm. Kinda scary, since Bastien and I play around that tree all the time, and Mazzy’s all but climbed it to retrieve many a stuck ball.

My only consolation is that we would most likely plant a new tree soon anyway, in honor of our new one’s birth. And besides, it’s not like we have a shortage of trees around this place.

So onto the real news. Today was Bastien’s two-month follow up appointment for Cranio Vault Reconstructive (CVR) surgery. It was pretty grueling, since we had a two hour wait, a limited nap in the car, and no pacifier. However, all things said, he was on his best behavior.

The doctors seem to be delighted with his progress. They were amazed at the amount of bone re-growth in his skull. They just thought he was looking super and even encouraged us that his pink scar would turn white some day, to match his delicate Irish-white skin. I prompted the doctor to explain the bulge above his right eye and even countered him a bit when he told us it could be because he favors one side while sleeping (I said it has always been bulge-y, even when he was in the PICU). Doc still thought there was no need to be concerned, that he still may have 10-15% swelling that needs to reduce, and that it’s just his soft tissue that is still finding the right place within the noggin. But here is the part that did not satisfy me. He said they could always go in there later and fix it and they wouldn’t even have to open his head again–they could just go in through the eye socket. OMG, let’s just not even think about that, OK? But for the good news: we do not have to go back for two more whole years! That is one hundred percent longer than we were anticipating. Now I’m not good at math, but you can barely do better than that, right?

One last tidbit. While we were toughing it out in the waiting room, another family was there with an 8-year-old boy who had undergone the same surgery at age 14-months. The mother was ready to share (quite unprompted, because you know the JLBs are not the nosey, talk-to-strangers type). I think she remembered all the anxiety and questions that we cranio parents face in the early days and wanted to be the living proof that things do work out in the end. So herein lies the rub… the kid did not look that great. I mean he was not deformed by any stretch of the imagination. But he had a distinctly different look. And his brother was even there for direct comparison. Yep, different. Like his forehead was narrower than average or something with still some bony things happening on the side. However, you could not see his scar at all. So there’s the silver lining, I guess?