Andrew was born on March 29, 2014 via C-section after hours in labor with hardly any progression, also I was coming up on 36 hours after my water broke and the doctor was concerned about the risk of infection. He was our first child and I was so utterly exhausted from labor and delivery that I never noticed how very oddly his head was shaped. On the day we were released from the hospital, the delivering Dr. came in and threw a scary, long word at us and explained to us that eventually Andrew would need surgery and we would need to go see a Craniofacial Dr. the next day. We were referred to Dr. Patel at Akron Children’s Hospital and we have just loved him from the very beginning. He explained Sagittal Craniosynostosis and everything to us in simple terms so we could understand. He always made us feel like Andrew was the only patient he saw that day and answered all our questions. We felt like he really looked at Andrew’s case and decided what to do for him as an individual rather than just having a cookie cutter treatment for everyone. He explained that he likes to wait until his patients are 10-12 months old so it reduces the chances of having a second surgery. We chose to do the surgery as soon as we could to get it over with. Andrew also took a medicine called Procrit for 3 weeks before surgery that increased his blood volume in hopes that he wouldn’t need a transfusion. Our surgery was Feb. 2nd 2015 and of course it was the most scary day of our lives but we had so many wonderful friends and family members supporting us and praying for us and we could feel the love of Jesus surrounding and supporting us. We got to see him after surgery sooner than we expected and let me tell you, seeing him after surgery was much, much harder for me than giving him up beforehand. He didn’t look like himself and he was awake and crying and obviously in pain and we couldn’t hold him right away and it was so hard for me to not fall apart completely. They gave him morphine and allowed us to hold him within about 10 minutes and once I got him he calmed right down and that made me feel better. The Procrit worked and he didn’t need any transfusions! We were released to go home on Feb. 4th and it seemed like he just relaxed once we got him into his car seat and he just slept and slept once we got home. We’re almost 6 weeks out from surgery and we have our sweet, happy baby back. After reading some other stories about bad experiences people had with hospitals I was a bit worried but we just had a wonderful experience with Akron Children’s. Everything they did was about keeping Andrew and us comfortable and they let us hold him as much as we wanted. We are so thankful that we are on the other side of surgery and if you’re reading this before your child’s surgery just remember that your child was made by One who loves them even more than you do and you’re gonna make it!
