Height after surgery ...

[txmarinemom]

Okay - I finally (LOL!), at 35 days post-op, remembered to get measured by some accurate method.

The hospital (oddly) didn't have height bars on the scales, and (*doh!) I FORGOT to get them to measure me at my 3 weeks post-op visit!

So ...

Yesterday, my daughter and I were at my Mom's: She has a doctor's scale with the height bar, and ...

I'm only 1/4" taller!!

(I expected a LITTLE more ... the estimate was 1 to 1-1/2" pre-op)

Anyway, I got to looking at my sagittal pre-op vs. sagittal post-op x-rays. I had almost NO natural kyphosis pre-op. My theory (and of *course* I'm sending Hanson an email to ask - lol) is any height increase was absorbed into the shaping of the rods to build normal kyphosis.

Sound feasible? I can't imagine what else would have made the vertical difference so small when I was a 2 rotation, and ±53° curvature ...

Look at what I mean ...

Pre-op sagittal (almost NO kyphosis)

Post-op sagittal (normal kyphosis).

Regards,
Pam

[nzgirl]

I 'grew' and inch, I'm pleased with that. I think I might be one of the only people in their 20's to grow (at age 20) 4cm, shrink 3, and then grow 2 again! Pam from your photos, you didn't look that squashed down or asymetrical so that's probably a contributing factor.

[Snoopy]

My daughter only grew 1/2". She was SO disappointed because she is only 4 feet 10 1/2 inches tall after surgery. She was hoping to reach 5 feet.

Mary Lou

[geo]

I think you're right, Pam. I gained atleast an inch post-surgery (at last measurement), but my kyphosis wasn't restored nearly as well as yours was.

[txmarinemom]

Pam from your photos, you didn't look that squashed down or asymetrical so that's probably a contributing factor.

Yeah, I know I didn't LOOK that bad, but the numbers are the numbers, wouldn't you say?

A +2 rotation and 53° is the same whether it's a higher structural curve (and balanced by compensatories) or lower (and imbalanced - which, from what I've noticed, anyway, tends to be associated with the "squashed" look) ...

Did you see what I was talking about on my pre/post op sagittals? Pre-op sagittal kyphosis is nearly non-existent ...

[scoliboymom]

Patrick grew 2-2 1/2 inches.
One thing I really noticed pre surgery was that there was a large variation in his height depending on time of day he was measured how active he was that day etc etc.
My thinking was that his spine/curve would settle with activity and fatigue throughout the day. Now, post surgery, when I measure him he is always the same height aside from some natural growth he is still going through. What I mean is I can measure him three days in a row now and get the exact same measurement unlike before surgery.
regarding the pre-op non existent kyphosis in your thoracic, Patrick had this too almost to the point of a lordosis (I will get his x-rays posted one of these days). The surgeon refered to this as lordoscoliosis. His was not corrected with surgery so yes since yours does really look more like a natural kyphosis now this too could also explain the lack of growth after your surgery.

Ramona

[briarrose]

I think you're right about losing height from the put in normal kyphosis. You would still think it would be more the 1/4". How tall were you before surgery?

[txmarinemom]

How tall were you before surgery?

5'2".

... and what the hell? Admin, this may be the silliest rule I've seen on ANY site: I tried to simply answer "5'2"", and got THIS:

"The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters."

Jeez!

We're forced to communicate by email because PM can't handle > 1000 characters, and there's a MINIMUM on *required* characters for posts?

Do you guys need help with your vBulletin setup/database structure??? I just happen to have some free time these days ...