Jake's Head Surgery

For starters, we want to thank everyone who graciously donated blood on Jake's behalf or attempted to do so. We did find out today he is B+ which means he can receive B+, B-, O+, and O-. Any blood types donated that he doesn't need or isn't the right type will be donated to people in need so thank you all. The blood bank commented on how many people have come for Jake so again thank you for making him a mini-celebrity at the blood-bank.

We had Jake's pre-op appt today with his surgeon and reviewed the course of action. It is very extensive and watching the Dr. draw diagrams for us of what they are doing is very frightening. We know though that it is all for the better and serves two parts. one to unfuse the sutures on the side of his skull that are fused and two to cosmetically restructure the skull to resemble a more normal one which includes reducing the height of his head and establishing bone growth in the front of his head where currently he doesn't have. They will shave a headband like patch of his hair from ear to ear which will serve as their entry point for all of the skull redesign. Next Friday February 1st is the surgery. We have to report to Cedar's Sinai at 5:15 am for a 7:15 surgery time. They have allocated 8 hours for the surgery. He will need to stay at the hospital for 5-7 days depending on his recovery. And his head for the first few months will look more square than normal partly due to overcorrection so his brain has extra room to grow and partly because it takes time till everything assimilates into proper position.

We are nervous for our lil boy but the Dr. does perform these surgeries all the time and we have a lot of faith in Dr. Urata. He will be doing the primary surgery with assist from the neurosurgeon Dr. Danielpour in the areas that affect the brain. This is tough for any parent to go through with their child but we know that this surgery helps Jake tremendously in the long run. I guess we just wish that it didn't all happen so close together as he is just hitting his groove now that he recovered from the hand surgery. We will update everyone more next week but it can't hurt for everyone to start thinking about Jake and sending him positive vibes.