spinecor

[christine2]

I just checked Air Canada, approx $1500.00 for 2 people round trip. Am I missing something????

[BellasMom]

It always depends on when you are flying - we flew on Tuesday. Middle of the week is usually good or staying over Saturday night is good as well

I see $400 tickets now. You can try this website to find the tickets, but you can't buy them there - you'll have to go to the airline site directly: matrix2.itasoftware.com - you can just search by month and it'll show you when it's the least expensive to fly let's say in November for 1-2 nights

[christine2]

Bellas mom
Excellent info, I have added it to my favorites. I never even heard of Porter Airlines. THANKS!!!!!

[emarismom]

Christine,

11 degrees out of brace is a very number !! As moms we always want better though, so I do understand.

As for airfare, it is cheaper to fly into the US, then rent a car and drive across the border. (I'm not sure of the distance, but it may be an option).
Flying into Canada is very expensive because of the high taxes there.

[christine2]

emarismom
Great Idea, I will look into that.

BTW I am trying to look at the big picture, I know that because my daughter had such a large curve at such a young age that her progression will most likely be aggressive. Therefore I want the smallest possible curve before she starts her growth spurt. She will most likely progress. I want to try to start out as low as possible. If she were 12 or 13 yrs old I would take 11* in a heart beat. I am not looking for perfect, just long term pain free right now.

[concerned dad]

congratulations Christine. 11 degrees! Looking good.

[Ballet Mom]

Hi Christine,

I think your daughter's out of brace number looks great! Didn't you say that she was going to be out of brace for a few days prior to the x-ray? You've done a good job getting her curve down, and there's nothing that stops you from changing to a different brace when your daughter hits the adolescent growth spurt.

I think that might be the ideal use for the Spinecore...to get these young kids spines down to small degrees in their slow growth, and then switch to a more robust brace as they enter their rapid and peak growth periods, when the forces on the spine become quite large and harder to control.

Kudos to you!

[Pooka1]

We are back from out appt. Out of brace X ray was 11* not bad but I was secretly hoping for another 1* reading. I was hoping she could come out of brace for a year.

My goal all along is to keep my daughters curve as low as possible now, so that we can stay below 20* during the growth spurt. Dr Rivard asked us what we wanted to do, My daughter was included in the whole discussion and it was unanimous, stay in brace till the end of growth.

That is still quite amazing actually. 33* -> 11*

I am guessing the eventual Spincor usage will largely, if not only, be in the JIS crowd based on all I have read and where this seems to be going. But who knows?

Can I ask if Rivard still sticks by the protocol of never taking an out of brace radiograph until weaning?

If so, how does he interpret the 1* in brace and 11* out of brace? I imagine he has NO framework with which to interpret that given his protocol.

Was he surprised at the 11* out? What would he have predicted I wonder?

Was he perturbed at all that you took the out of brace shot? Does he still maintain it is completely unnecessary?

Anyway, congratulations. It's a big deal. I can't think of any other Spinecor "success" story besides yours.

[mariaf]

Christine,

I know that we, as parents, want to hear the lowest numbers possible, but 11 degrees is a really good place to be! Congratulations!

[Pooka1]

Christine,

I know that we, as parents, want to hear the lowest numbers possible, but 11 degrees is a really good place to be! Congratulations!

Actually considering the error bars, she may not technically have scoliosis any more.

[CAmomof2]

Christine,

Congrats! 11* out of brace is almost considered "normal" !
Hope she can continue to hold the low numbers!!
Our 10 year old daughter is 14* in brace and has been in the spinecor for a little over a year now. She started out at 25* out of brace, and yes I have her xrays double checked by another ped. ortho. to make sure the #'s are correct! She sees both Dr's actually, but only has the xrays taken in Montreal because they have much lower radiation. She had a MRI this summer and everything is fine.
We live in Canada and have a 9.5 hour drive one way to the clinic in Montreal. We drive in the summer and fly in winter. Hope you can find good rates for her next appt. Take Care.

[jillp]

Congrats

Christine, I have been thinking so much about you lately, because I knew your x-ray visit was coming up. I am so happy for you that you had good results. You are my inspiration and if this Boston bracing doesn't work, I will be calling you again for tips on seeing Dr. Rivard! Keep up the good work! Maureen Roberts will be thrilled!!!

Jill from CT (Liliana's mom, 4 yrs old)

[jillw]

Christine, WOWIE WOW WOW (to use junie b jone's phrase - could you guess i have a 2nd grader in the house)

I understand you were secretly hoping to see a 1 degree curve- but cutting her OUT OF BRACE curve by approx 66% is totally wonderful. And I further understand that with JIS you want the curve down to next to nothing before her big growth spurt so you have a larger safety net, but still, wow. yay. somehow i had missed your post - although i had been wondering when in october you would be going.

Pooka, from what I have seen anecdotally, with the hard braces they take an in brace xray at the original fitting to see that there is some sort of correction, but when the child gets subsequent out of brace xrays, the curve is usually HIGHER than it had been in brace (but perhaps lower than the pre-bracing xray) so I'm not surprised to see something similar with spinecor also. I've never read anything anywhere that indicated any kind of brace would give you an out of brace curve that is as small as it is in brace, although i'd love to find such a brace.

[Pooka1]

Pooka, from what I have seen anecdotally, with the hard braces they take an in brace xray at the original fitting to see that there is some sort of correction, but when the child gets subsequent out of brace xrays, the curve is usually HIGHER than it had been in brace (but perhaps lower than the pre-bracing xray) so I'm not surprised to see something similar with spinecor also. I've never read anything anywhere that indicated any kind of brace would give you an out of brace curve that is as small as it is in brace, although i'd love to find such a brace.

Jill,

I don't think I was clear.

I was just asking about the Spinecor protocol which as far as I can tell does NOT include any out of brace radiographs during treatment. Folks here insist on them over and above any possible objections from Rivard et al. as far as I can tell because it is a legitimate thing to do.

For hard bracing, the protocol is one radiograph in brace at the beginning and the rest are out of brace for whatever hours are specified.

Thus the two protocols are almost completely different and I would like to know why.

[christine2]

Just for the record, Dr Rivard did not argue about the out of brace x ray. He did indicate that it was not necessary. I understand his reasoning and in hindsight feel that the x ray was unnecessary. Dr Rivard has told me over and over that my daughters treatment is my decision. He has never insisted on anything and by far has been the most compassionate, professional Dr I have delt with.

Thank you everyone for you nice comments, my family feels very much at ease and relaxed right now. It's a nice place to be.