CT Scan Images

Here are the latest CT scan images of Simon's skull. If you get squeamish with these things, I want to warn you to move on to a different post or a different site. It is just a computer image of the bone, but some people get the heebie-jeebies when looking at this sort of stuff.






Don't say that I didn't warn you!






Here, you can see the infamous soft spot on the right side. Every time I look at him now, I see this thing pulsating. Immediately, I feel sadness and worry. What if he gets hit there? Why in the hell do we have to put him through another surgery?!



From the front view, you can see that he has soft spots on both sides. The one on the left is smaller, but I can see it pulsate too.



Here's the one on the left in all its glory.



You can see right through to the other side! Well, not really, since he has skin and brain there, but the picture reinforces what is going on.



There are some small holes on top, but the neurosurgeon is not too worried about those. There used to be a plateau that ran across Simon's head there, due to the shape of the bone at the last CVR (Cranial Vault Remodeling). They had taken off the skull cap and flipped it back around so that it was oriented the same way that it had been before his first surgery. This gave his brain some room at front where it was previously getting pinched, but the bone did not fit together perfectly. Over time, that has smoothed out. It is not perfect, but it seems to get nicer every day.



So, this is what they have to fill. They hope to take bones off the sides of the skull, above the ear. That is where the skull is usually thickest. If they do a split bone graft, then the bone pieces will be cut like an Oreo cookie and fitted over the holes. Everything will be held together by absorbable plates and screws.




We don't know if he will need a blood transfusion this time around, but I plan to be prepared anyhow. The surgery will not be as invasive as past surgeries, but cutting and peeling back the scalp can be a bloody affair. Plus, you just never know what they will run into once inside.