15yo boy, 60*,NO pain, is surgery now right?

[flowergardenj]

New member, mother of 15 year old boy with 60 plus degree right thoracic curve and compensating cervical and lumber curves of about 25 degrees. Surgery has been advised, just asking all the questions. Potential date is June 19/08. My concern is that he experiences no pain from the scoliosis. Is surgery the right thing? Anyone want to offer an opinion? How successful is the corrective surgery? Do the majority of patients have a good outcome or believe that surgery was the right thing after they go through it? How many regret going for surgery or experience major negative results from surgery including pain they didn't have before? Would appreciate hearing from anyone that had similar situation and went for surgery or similar and chose not to have surgery or at least delayed it for a period of time.

[Pooka1]

New member, mother of 15 year old boy with 60 plus degree right thoracic curve and compensating cervical and lumber curves of about 25 degrees. Surgery has been advised, just asking all the questions. Potential date is June 19/08. My concern is that he experiences no pain from the scoliosis. Is surgery the right thing? Anyone want to offer an opinion? How successful is the corrective surgery? Do the majority of patients have a good outcome or believe that surgery was the right thing after they go through it? How many regret going for surgery or experience major negative results from surgery including pain they didn't have before? Would appreciate hearing from anyone that had similar situation and went for surgery or similar and chose not to have surgery or at least delayed it for a period of time.

Thank you for asking this question. I'm looking forward to the answers.

My daughter is having posterior spinal fusion in two days. I didn't see it as a choice.

Best of luck with your son.

sharon

[LorDon]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

My 17 yr old son who just had surgery 3 months ago also had no pain. None at all. His curves were 55T/46L and his correction is 19T/11L. He is doing great at 3 months post op with no pain and no regrets. His back looks fantastic now and his hips and shoulders are nice and even. I am so glad that we went through with this surgery now while he is young and healthy. It's a much more difficult surgery as an adult and the recovery is generally much longer. The kids are so resilient and they really do bounce back very quickly.

I know that it's a tough decision to make, but we've all been there and we are all here to help you along the way.

Best of luck,

[LorDon]

flowergardenj,
I sent you a private message.

[ElleBelleCurvz]

Don't hold me to my info, cucz this is just off of prior knowledge. But it is my understanding that you could have pain or no pain no matter how large the curve, surgery is not done due to pain but because of how risky and dangerous a curve is, a curve in excess of 50 degrees has the possibility of growing after growth is done and this could damage innards, and i believe it is more for health and not for pain that surgery is done. Many people that had pain before surgery still get ocassional back pain aftrwards, its not supposed to solve pain. Best of luck tho, and i believe sugery is the rite choice for your son.

[Aussiemum]

I just PM you as well as I don't want to bore everyone with re-reading all my thoughts on this.

cheers
Del

[LorDon]

flowergardenj,
One other point that I forgot to mention was how quickly my son's curves progressed. In the space of a year, his curves increased 17 degrees. He still had some growth left and at that point we realized that the curve would just continue to progress. We were very concerned that later on down the road the scoliosis would affect his heart and lungs like Danielle said. Also, the longer you wait for the surgery, the worse the curves could become and therefore making the surgery itself more difficult and the correction may not be as good. A 60 degree curve is pretty big and at 15, your son probably still has some growing to do and chances are, his curve will progress.

[Carmell]

Good luck to you and your son. Making a decision to have scoliosis surgery is very serious and should never be taken lightly. You need to gather ALL the facts related to his scoliosis specifically - timing of the surgery, history of progression, Risser score, overall spine balance, flexibility of the curve(s), etc. These are all issues (and more) that you should discuss with the surgeon.

I mention timing because scoliosis is rarely an emergency situation. You do have time to research and get your "ducks in a row" so that when he does have surgery, it will be timed well for an optimal outcome. There are no guarantees with any surgery (always risks, as minimal as they are, when it's your child, statistics go out the window). Can his surgery wait until he's out of school - between high school and college? Take a year off (while still under parent's insurance) and recover well before trying to rush back to 100% of normal, or more.

What does your son think? He should be a big player in the surgery decision and the timing and everything else. Good luck with this.

[rtremb]

Flowergardenj:

Thanks for starting this thread. We are in a similar situation with our daughter Esme, 13-1/2 years old with curves in the 60's. We are reluctant to have the surgery but can't see any other choice since we suspect her curves will continue to progress.

I will be very interested in the replies you get.

Ruth

[Snoopy]

Flowergardenj,

My daughter was 13 y.o. and done growing when she had her surgery. Her Scoliosis curve before surgery was 46* and still progressing. It corrected to about 14*. She is now 16 and you'd never know she had surgery. She does everything she wants to do and has never regretted her decision to have the surgery sooner rather than later (she had surgery in 8th grade instead of waiting until she was in High School). I asked Jamie a few days after her surgery if she regretted her decision and even though she had some pain at that time, she said no. Jamie never had pain with her Scoliosis except for the surgical pain.

You are off to a great start. Continue your research, keep your son involved, and if you haven't already done so, get at least a second opinion.

Mary Lou

[Neesasmum]

Hi Flowergardenj

We are almost 7 weeks post-op with my daughter Annessa and like your son, she didn't have any pain before the fusion. She was a wait and watch case for 1 year and I worried obsessively for that time about a potential spinal fusion. Then in October 2007 we were told by her surgeon that she had to have the fusion as her curve would just keep progressing. Although there was no pain, we could see that her body was becoming more and more uneven. Annessa wanted to have the op as she could see the changes in her body and knew it was getting worse. It is such a big decision to make but we were told that the best outcome for her would be to have the op when we did.

Annessa is 7 weeks post-op and is still in some pain but managed to go back to school part-time last week. Her curve has been corrected to 10 degrees. The folks here on the forum have been such a source of comfort and have really helped us through the last few months, so you will have lots of good, sensible advice from everyone.

Good luck
Anne

[scoliboymom]

flowergardenj
My son was first diagnosed at 60ish degree curve. At this point there was absolutely no pain. By the time his curve progressed (very quickly in his case) to 80ish he did have pain and much less stamina. He couldn't walk for long because he ached. Irregardless of the pain though we still would have gone through with the surgery, main reason was progression. His surgeon said that in boys the curve progression is usually relentless and I think that refers to curves that are larger.
Now at ten months post-op I would say his surgery was very successful. He would too. No regrets what-so-ever. It did take me time and lots of asking questions before I realized that for us surgery had to happen. Never an easy decision.
Best of luck,
Ramona

[Karen40]

My daughter didn't have pain prior to surgery either. Her curves progressed so quickly last year - from 50*, whe she was first diagnosed to 75* just prior to surgery. She is now balanced at 20* & 20*. No pain after either, other than the surgery pain.

She did experience 2 migraine headaches so far but I'm not sure if it's related. She hasn't had one for over a month so I'm hoping it was just related to a bit of a flu bug that she had.

She does occasionally have some discomfort in her lower back. The fusion extends down to L4 and we were told that she likely would have slightly more pain down there than someone who wasn't fused. Most people do occasionally get lower back pain, whether or not they have Scoliosis.

Overall, she is very happy that she went through with the surgery. She is very happy with the outcome and her hourglass figure is back.

[flowergardenj]

Thanks for all your replies. We have another appointment booked with the surgeon at the end of April, where we can ask him some more questions including his theories on future progression without surgery and expected level of fusion and degrees of correction if we do proceed. In order to keep the June surgery date, we will have to be prepared to move forward at that time probably, so there is at least a month to get everything organized including blood donation(s) and mental preparation.

If there are any other teenage boys who have experiences to share, I would appreciate your input. I don't know if boys' experiences are different from girls' or whether they have different attitudes to the surgery. I know they mature at a later age so I'm still wondering if 15 is a good age to get the surgery. Is there any chance it is too early or are there others out there who have had surgery at 15 who can reply? What happens if you grow after the surgery?

Thanks, J

[flowerpower]

Hi J,

I would be happy to share my son's experience with you, or you ask him specific questions if you have any. With the teens, it isn't so much age as Risser measurement as to when its an optimal time for surgery...you want growth to be complete (or almost) if possible. My son had to have surgery at 14 1/2 with a Risser 0, meaning he still had quite a bit of growth left. Any growth that happens post-surgery will be above & below the fusion - fused area will not grow anymore. This is something a surgeon will/should take into consideration when planning what levels to fuse. I could give you my e-mail add. if you want to ask any questions, just PM me.

Good luck,
Renee