Gosh, I just don't know where to start. I guess I need to back up several years. Sarah was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was just 7 years old. At that time her spine had an 18 degree curve. The doctors wanted to take the "wait and see" approach, so we did. One year later, her curve had progressed to 28 degrees. 10 degrees in one year is an aggressive progression, so she was braced. Her first brace did nothing and her spine continued to worsen over the years. We tried 2 other types of braces in conjunction with supplements, diet, and therapy for an hour every day for the next several years. Still her curve increased. Surgery has been recommended to her for years, but we always knew that would be a last resort. We have tried every natural way of correction with no avail. In the summer of 2010, she underwent an extremely intensive, week long therapy that gave us some hope. She started the therapy at 65 degrees and ended it at 54!! We were so hopeful that the correction would hold, but to our disappointment, it never did.
The pain has increased over the last year and her lumbar spine is getting stiffer. The x-ray to the left was taken on May 2, 2012. She has returned to having a 65 degree curve. As you can see, she has 2 curves in her spine. The top curve is the main curve of concern. The bottom one is called a compensatory curve. It is simply compensating for the top one.
At 17 years old, Sarah is mature enough to make her own decisions regarding her treatment. After many months contemplating her course of action, countless sleepless nights, and many tears shed she has made the decision to proceed with surgery. She will have 2 titanium rods fused to each side of her spine beginning around T4 and ending around L3. The x-ray to the right was taken with traction to show how much correction could potentially be made. Her body will be tractioned while in surgery to straighten her spine as much as possible allowing the rods to be placed against a straighter spine. We are told that the surgery will improve the main curve to 34 degrees or better and the compensatory curve to 23 degrees.
The surgery will be performed on May 25, 2012 at Emory University Orthopaedics and Spine Hospital in Atlanta. The past 10 years have not been easy on Sarah and we are prayerful that the surgery will improve her adult quality of life.
At 17 years old, Sarah is mature enough to make her own decisions regarding her treatment. After many months contemplating her course of action, countless sleepless nights, and many tears shed she has made the decision to proceed with surgery. She will have 2 titanium rods fused to each side of her spine beginning around T4 and ending around L3. The x-ray to the right was taken with traction to show how much correction could potentially be made. Her body will be tractioned while in surgery to straighten her spine as much as possible allowing the rods to be placed against a straighter spine. We are told that the surgery will improve the main curve to 34 degrees or better and the compensatory curve to 23 degrees.
...and the brace Sarah wore was a hard shell covering her entire torso, for 23 hours every day.
ReplyDeleteMy darling granddaughter, daughter, and son have endured their adversity with such grace and wisdom. I'm so proud of all of them!