My 16 year old daughter has never been sick a day in her life, she doesn't play sports, and I never took her to the doctor after age 8 for check-ups. She goes to a private school that does not have scoliosis screenings. I can remember that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I noticed her shoulder blade was sticking out and asking her to stand up straight for me. (How can I not have noticed!). The initial screening showed curves of 48 and 63 degrees although the orthopedist surgeon said he calculates a bit higher than that. She was already just barely full grown. We knew we didn't have much of a choice, that as she got older, the curves would worsen. Two months later she underwent a 7 hour surgery and a small extention six months after that. She recovered well and her spine is amazingly at almost 100% straight. I am so relieved that she has never had back pain (except for the surgery recovery) and she can stand straight and tall like her (fraternal) twin sister. Because it all happened so fast, I get small bouts of "post traumatic Mom stress syndrome" (my own coined word) that feels like "GASP, what did I do to my child?" I'm sure with yearly check-ups by her surgeon she will do fine in the next 10, 20, 30 years, but does any one know of consequences of rods in the back in the Over-the-hill years of 50, 60, 70 plus? I won't be around, but I need to know she'll be OK.
PS This July will be one-year since second surgery.
--Mother of Twins in California
PS This July will be one-year since second surgery.
--Mother of Twins in California
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