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Need some reassurance

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  • Need some reassurance

    My daughter is 18 and was just diagnosed and has been recommended for surgery. I am not sure how it went undiagnosed for so long since she was very active in high school (cheerleading and dance) and had yearly physicals. Needless to say, she is a little freaked out by what is happening to her. She has been in a lot of pain (which is why they took x-rays and realized what was wrong).

    I am hoping that someone near her age can answer a few questions that I haven't been able to get answers to. What she wants to know is how big her scar will be, how limited her mobility will be after surgery (she loves to go hiking), and do any of you have any regrets?

    Thanks for any advice you might be able to give her. Having never gone through this, I can't give her the reassurance that each of you might be able to.

  • #2
    Jessicas Mom,
    The length of your daughters scar will depend on the length of her fusion. My 17 year old daughter, an athlete also, is almost a year post op. She doesn't look at her scar as a scar, she looks at it as a wonderful correction to an ugly back. She was undiagnosed until she was just past her 16th birthday. She cried that day. She wanted her back fixed because she was tired of the constant pain. Basketball season was really starting to take its toll on her. She was taking maximum amounts of tylenol and ibuprofene. The best day of her life for pain relief was the day she had surgery. She still has some discomfort, but then she pushes the issue with what she can do sometimes. My daughter is fused from T2-L2, so her scar is the entire length of her back. She was so thrilled to wear a low cut dress to her prom last year. I asked her if her scar would bother her showing. But, she said that her straight back and correct posture was more stricking than the scar on her back.

    Your daugther will have some limitation after surgery. However, she will eventually be able to resume hiking. She may be able to hike sooner, if someone else is willing to carry her back pack.

    Did the doctor tell you what her curves were? That is something you may want to know. If you start reading different posts, we all refer to degrees of curvature. My daughter had an 88 degree curvature at her diagnosis, and it was slightly more by the time she had surgery 6 months later.

    Ask any and all questions you may have. Someone will eventually read them and post back to you.
    Nikki

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