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  • Random bracing comments

    So during Savannah's six week check up, I asked about Willow's Risser and when she might be able to lose her brace.

    He said Willow is about a 2 but that he goes more so by the time after menstruation begins and less so by the Risser if I understood him correctly.

    Willow is in a night-time bending brace. He said the degree of correction in-brace is sometimes related to the ability to hold the curve if I understood him correctly. The converse is not true... that is, just because the brace can correct a curve a lot and just because the spine is flexible DOESN'T mean the brace is guaranteed to work for Willow.

    I was sort of fishing around for further thoughts from him on the possibility of this brace helping Willow avoid surgery. The predictions have swung wildly from being a very low chance of success based on her identical twin's fast and far progression to more hopeful after seeing the in-brace correction. Well both of these scenarios can't be right... one is going to control things.

    I brought up that I think that orthopods who don't brace have some ground to stand on based on the reading I did. He agreed and said he either rarely or never (both Savannah and I thought he said "never") braced before the night-time bending brace came out. So I took that to mean he only prescribed that type of brace. I guess he either thinks that non-night-time braces are too much of a burden given the unknown chance of avoiding surgery or that curves that will not progress to surgery territory will not progress irrespective of whether you brace it not. Or some other reason, he didn't really say specifically.

    I told him what I told Willow... that were it me, I would forgo the brace and take my chances based on the "life is too short" theory. He said he understood that completely. Folks who in fact choose that are not out to lunch.

    Anyway, it seems that Willow's curve did not progress between mid January and the end of March and that was a period BEFORE she got the brace. Her next appointment is concurrent with Savannah's six month appointment around Thanksgiving. If the curve hasn't progressed, I might ask if she can lose the brace given the curve might not be progressing anyway. Or not. We'll see.

    And it remains amazing to me that these two girls have such different scoliosis progression trajectories. It may be they have different active X chromosomes, a situation referred to as Lyonization. In all females, one or the other X chromosome is active and the other is not. That might also explain some other differences. Who knows and oh well.
    Last edited by Pooka1; 05-09-2008, 06:43 PM.
    Sharon, mother of identical twin girls with scoliosis

    No island of sanity.

    Question: What do you call alternative medicine that works?
    Answer: Medicine


    "We are all African."
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