Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The good hydrocephalus.

Evan has had a large head since birth. Not super crazy large though, I mean, it was "only" 35cm when he popped out which landed him in the 75th percentile. He's been outgrowing the head/neck holes of onesies ridiculously early from the get-go. The pediatrician measured his head every single time we went to an appointment and every single time it remained in the 75th percentile. That is, until the most recent visit at 4 months. It measured 44.5cm which landed him in the 97th percentile. This concerned the pediatrician a bit because the jump from 75% to 97% didn't follow the normal growth pattern. She referred us to a radiologist to have a pediatric cranial ultrasound done to rule out hydrocephalus. After an insurance fiasco forced us to postpone the ultrasound by a week, we finally had it done last Thursday and were told that we'd hear something back in 48 hours. Tuesday morning, I received the results from his pediatrician. Evan has benign external hydrocephalus. She said it was good news. Good because it's external rather than internal. Internal is WAY bad, needs surgery, and can be deadly. External generally fixes itself by the kid's first birthday when the fontanelles close and is nothing to worry about. She also said that it's hereditary and that it's likely someone in the family had a large head as a baby, but in the "old days", they didn't check for it. Still, she referred us to a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins to keep tabs on it. She warned us that they're a super crazy busy practice so our visit there may be a month away, but there is no rush because Evan is showing no signs that would indicate a problem. I'm waiting for a call back from them so I can schedule an appointment. Hopefully, that in itself doesn't take a month. Ah...healthcare...

1 comment:

  1. Hi- I wish you the best! In the event you have questions or would like to speak with someone regarding hydrocephalus- Please feel free to contact me.
    Marybeth
    mbghearus@gmail.com

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