Bill’s Blog

Before we get a bunch of questions, or "I’m sorry’s" (which are totally unnecessary, by the way), I going to be proactive and explain what the deal is about Billy’s "band" (which will be used in place of the word "helmet"), which, if you haven’t seen already, he is wearing in a couple of his photos.

Lil’ Billy was born with a rather big hematoma, or bump, on the left side of his head.  It stuck around for about 6 weeks, and caused Billy to always look to his right.  When it miraculously went down (his doctor’s words), thanks in large part to prayers from family and friends (in particular, Cynthia’s aunt), we found that due to having laid on his right side for so long, that he had developed a flat spot on that side of his head, and that the overall shape of his head was a little off.

Despite this, Billy has progressed and developed fine in all aspects of life.  His head just had kind of a funny shape.  So, his doctor recommended that we meet with some specialists to see about getting him a band.  Basically, the band allows for his head to grow in certain areas, and restricts growth in others.  It’s completely safe, won’t cause him pain, and doesn’t cause any neurological damage.  It’s something that will benefit him socially in the future, as he won’t have to be the kid with the weird shaped head when he grows up (just the kid with the big head, which is what I fondly recall being when I was a young lad).  We met with the specialists, got him checked out, he qualified, got him fitted, and now he has been wearing the band for almost 3 weeks.  He adapted very quickly to it, and thanks to Cynthia’s wonderful creativity and artistic abilities, she has made it lots of fun, decorating it with Halloween stickers at first, and then zoo animals, since we were taking a little excursion to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  She’s already started on this week’s theme, which I’m not sure yet what it is, but I’m sure that we’ll have pictures.

Please, don’t feel bad, he’s handling it fine.  He’ll be wearing it for 4-6 months (which means that when we come home to NY, you’ll get to see it if you meet up with us), and he won’t even remember it when he gets older.  It certainly doesn’t bother us, and if anything, I think that Billy even makes it look pretty cute.  Feel free to ask any questions.  There you go with the moderately long version of why he wears it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Bill