Appointment in LA

We went to UCLA today to meet with Dr. Bradley (Plastic Surgeon). He did not give us a definitive answer about what is next, but here is his take: He said we should wait a few months to see how her head & brain grow. This will help the next surgery, by knowing what to expect afterwards and to help avoid a 3rd surgery. After the next few months, we will see how her head & brain grow, then likely we will do another surgery in 6 months. This surgery will be ear-to-ear (again) in the same incision as the last. They will take bone from another part of her skull and place it onto her orbital ridge (above her right eye) and also put another bone graft where the one didn't take before, and fill in the soft-spots from the 1st surgery. There is no guarantee that this surgery will make her perfectly symmetric, but there will be an improvement. Regarding the helmet, he said it isn't helping or hurting and he doubts it is doing anything to help her orbits, but it may be preventing anything from getting worse. So, we are still deciding if the helmet therapy will continue. It is amazing how much is really our decision now. You think you will go to the doctor and they will say to do something...and you just do it. But, in our situation it is really up to us as parents what we want to do and when we want to do it. In the meantime, it looks like we have many more agonizing months to wait, AGAIN, for another surgery. We will keep you posted, as always!

On a lighter note, while we were in LA, we decided to go out to lunch at the Promenade. When we got there we walked right into the filming of Modern Family (i love that show)! The scene is Mitchell and Cameron at the bottom of an escalator with an elderly couple....so look out for it. We weren't in the episode, but I did get to take a picture of Avery sitting in one of the Modern Family chairs. Only in LA.....