The reluctant patient

Last week was an eventful one for Lucy, with multiple doctors appointments. Lucy is not generally a fan of strange people invading her personal space (or even looking at her the wrong way), so she was not particularly pleased with the course of events. However, the week ended quite well for all of us.

It started on Monday. Lucy had to go in for CT scan of her head because her doctors were concerned about the fact that her head is so much bigger than the rest of her body. That day she was allowed clear liquids after 7:30am, and nothing at all for the three hours before the scan. Once we got to the hospital the nurse appeased her grouchiness by letting her suck on a pacifier dipped in a sugar water solution. It was like magic.

Here she is with her diaper, socks, and magical sugar pacifier waiting for the procedure.


A little bit later they gave her some medicine to sedate her and she fell asleep like a newborn. We thoroughly enjoyed actually getting to hold her while she slept for the first time in so long!


The original results of the CT scan were not good. The initial report stated that three sutures in Lucy’s skull had fused prematurely. This is a condition called craniosynostosis, which almost always involves one or more surgeries to widen the sutures and reconstruct the skull. This was tough news. However, we met with two neurosurgeons over the next few days who confirmed that Lucy’s condition was actually milder that we originally thought and not worth the risks of surgery at this age. (Lucy’s diagnosis was much later than most.) This was a HUGE relief as you can probably imagine.

During one of the appointments, Scott and I had our heads measured too. It turns out that my head is in the 75th percentile and Scott’s is in the 98th!! Who knew?! So in addition to having some minor issues with her skull, Lucy also is just the product of her genes. We still think she is pretty cute though.