Tort

No, not of the legal variety…Henry was diagnosed with torticollis, and when speaking about it, all of the professionals refer to it as “tort” for short.  I had noticed that his head tilted to the side, and mentioned it to the pediatrician at his last appointment.  She suspected that he had mild “tort”, and referred us to a physical therapist who confirmed her suspicion.  Basically, it means that his head tilts to the right side…apparently, it is due to the fact that he was in cramped quarters (i.e., my uterus!) with his head at an angle.  Right now, it just manifests itself as a tilt, but if it isn’t fixed, it can lead to many problems (including facial asymmetry, delayed milestones, vision problems, flat head/helmet, etc.). 

Needless to say, it is something we need to address now, and so we had our first appointment with the physical therapist (Lisa) this week.  Lisa said Henry has about 80% mobility/range of motion on his right side…the muscles on that side are super tight, so his head always lists toward that side (which we knew).  But Lisa also pointed out a few other things that I hadn’t noticed.  For example, if you put him on his belly on his forearms, his right arm immediately pushes out straight…I guess it is just uncomfortable or he doesn’t have the strength there.  Also, if you hold a toy above him when he is laying on his back, he can track it all the way to the left, but he stops when he goes to the right…he tries to turn his torso to get the full rotation, but he isn’t able to do so.  She also said he needs to start attempting to support himself with his hand in the seated position (like a gorilla!), which he doesn’t do…mostly because his hands are always in his mouth!  Lisa gave us a pamphlet with about 20 exercises we are supposed to do with him each day, and we will be going to physical therapy twice a week.  Hopefully if we are diligent about the exercises and he responds well, we will only have to do the PT for 8 weeks.  The hardest part of the diagnosis?  No Bumbo, Exersaucer, or anything we usually put him in…we are supposed to be holding him (preferably in a special football hold which stretches his neck) or he has to be on the floor.  Good times!

I was actually looking at pictures last night, and now Henry’s head tilt is so much more noticeable to me!  Take a look…

Okay, off to watch some television and crash for the night!

Xoxoxo