Re: Any help for a Kaiser Appeal in Colorado?

[Guest guest]

I don't know how Kaiser works as far as selecting which

pediatricians can write prescriptions for you. My pediatrician in

Wheat Ridge, not with Kaiser, is extremely supportive of

banding...as a result of our experience. We actually waited 7 weeks

for an appt. with the cranial-facial clinic and neurosurgeon at

Children's, only to be told that treating our daughter " wasn't worth

the effort " . When we found out how important an experienced

orthotist is (from this board) and how unsupportive the medical

community in Denver is regarding banding, we felt that it would not

be possible to find an experienced orthotist in this area. My

pediatrician allowed me to write a letter of medical necessity,

which they transferred onto their letterhead and signed. They also

wrote a prescription for " DOC Band, no substitutions) on their

prescription pad. All of the doctors we saw in Denver - group

pediatric practice, neurosurgeon, cranial-facial specialist,

physical therapist at children's main campus - said my daughter was

a " mild " case and they see much worse. CT said she was amongst the

most severe cases, and ended up wearing 2 bands from Nov to Mar

2006. She was 6 months old when she started, and 10 months old when

she graduated. We flew in and out of Phoenix for our treatment.

Both our pediatrician and physical therapist now recommend patients

pursue banding for their plagio patients. Surprisingly, my daughter

was their first patient to be treated. They were open-minded during

the entire treatment, and asked lots of questions and read all the

information I brought them. They have openly stated that they

seriously question the decisions of the team at Children's.

The correction in her plagio is amazing. Her facial asymmetry is

gone, her ears are almost symmetrical. From the front, you'd never

know she ever had plagio. A birds-eye view still shows a small

amount of flatness, but only to those who know what they're looking

for! More importantly, her eyes still crossed when she was banded,

and " corrected " about 3 weeks into the treatment. One of her

ears " drained goo " until about 5 weeks into the banding treatment.

A friend of mine did not treat her son's plagio, on the advice of

Denver area pediatricians. That 2 year old boy is having tubes put

in his ears this week. I can't say all those things are definitely

effects of plagio, but I can't say they're not either!

Good luck with whatever decision you make! It's not easy to act

against the advice of the doctors, and it's not easy to have the

only banded baby everywhere you go. In 6 months of wearing the

band, I only met one other parent who had banded her child...and

they had recently moved from another state. Please feel free to

contact me if you have any other questions I might be able to help

with.

Tammy

Teagan, DOC Grad March 2006

> > >

> > > Hi. I am new to this group and am facing an uphill climb in

my

> > appeal

> > > to Kaiser in Colorado for a helmet for my 7 mo. old son. He

has

> > > plagiocephaly as a result of ideopathic scoliosis. We

received

> the

> > > denial letter, and don't really know what to do next. Any

ideas

> or

> > > advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

> > >

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> For more plagio info