Cranio surgery!

I can’t get over how amazing our little man is doing! We are so very blessed with his health lately!!

We do have an AWESOME update here!!! We got the go ahead for surgery next week!! It has been so scary thinking it was being canceled, and then the finalizing of dates and times finally were called in and emailed to us!

In this post, I will have a few quotes from Dr, Fearons online page to help me explain what will be happening this time. This is not Dawsons longest surgery, but we have been told it is his most dangerous one.

Daws will have his first cranio surgery which is called a CVR(Cranial Vault Remodelling). The goal of the first skull surgery is to enlarge the skull to give his brain more room to grow. Once a suture is fused shut, it cannot be “released” in such a way as to permit better growth. This is because it is impossible to surgically recreate a functioning suture; therefore, it is important that the surgery is able to accomplish a significant enlargement.

(The skull is made up of separate bones and the spaces between these bones are called sutures.) In Apert syndrome all these skull sutures eventually fuse together, but usually the first sutures to fuse shut are called the coronal sutures. These two sutures run from ear to ear across the top of the head; the right and left coronal sutures meet at the top of the skull at the soft spot, or anterior fontanel. With these sutures fused shut, the skull is not able to grow in a normal way to accommodate the growing brain. (We will be told next week the day before surgery, exactly which fusions Daws has.)

The skull cannot get larger from front to back so instead, the brain grows upward making the head taller. In most children with Apert syndrome the soft spot will split open down the middle of the forehead like a seam tearing open in a tight pair of pants, leaving a large open area of the skull from front to back that feels soft. Eventually, over time this open area will completely close up with bone. One constant concern for children born with Apert syndrome is the possibility for raised intracranial pressure. We know that children with Apert syndrome have larger brains. Although the skull can get bigger without sutures, the abnormal closure of skull sutures (craniosynostosis) does somewhat limit the ability for the brain to enlarge freely in all directions, leading to slightly higher pressures inside the skull, which in turn may reduce blood flow to the brain. Raised intracranial pressure is most often treated by surgically enlarging the skull.

There will be a pediatric neurosurgeon and craniofacial surgeon along with a team, working together over the course of the entire procedure.

The second goal for Dr. Fearon and his team, is to significantly reduce the high number of operations that most children normally undergo, which plays a part in why we chose Dallas as our team! So because of that, He will not be getting distractors. But instead will have his skull rebuilt and it will be held together with dissolving sutures. In order to perform this surgery, Daws will have a wavy zigzag incision from ear to ear to allow plenty of room for skull removal and correction. At the end of the operation, Dawsons scalp will be closed with dissolving stitches. We will stay in PICU for a minimum of 24 hours then move to a floor for 48 hours for monitoring. If Daws does as well as expected, we will be home on the 3rd day after surgery! We will update as we can, but this surgery does have us a bit nervous, so might not be able to as much as usual! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! #happybaby #craniobaby #craniosynostosis #apertsyndrome #choosekind #ccakid #kindnessmatters #boylife #craniofacialawareness #cvr #drfearon #dallas #apertsyndromewarrior #craniofacial #Surgery #ccakids #spreadlove #inclusionmatters #overcomer #apertowl