Surgery this young?

[Sophiezp]

Hi everybody I am the new kid on the block!

My name is Sophie, I am NEARLY 12 years old (my birthday is on Columbus Day, 10/8 [!!!!!!!!!!!]), and I live in Westchester/NYC. I am Chinese, about 100 lbs, and 5'6.5" (which is HUGE for my age, people think I am 16 or something)
I play a lot of sports, includin tennis and swimming. I have been swimming since 3 years old because I had asthma and swimming completely obliterated it from my life.
I was diagnosed with scoliosis on July of this year with a T45 curve and a L30 curve. I never knew I had scoliosis. Even now I have no pain whatsoever and I feel so normal. I've seen some people at forums say they have severe back pain even at 30 degrees, but hey, everyone's different. The doctor referred us to a scoliosis surgeon and he recommended surgery. My family and I, however, decided to wait and see what would happen. In August we got another x-ray and this time my curves were T54 and L35. I was really scared and worried because our surgeon pressed me to have scoliosis ASAP in late September 07.
My mother spent countless sleepless nights searching the web, looking for an alternative treatment(s). Soon she found a man named Dr. Manuel Rigo in Barcelona, Spain. He teaches the Schroth method of physical therapy.
This year I started at a new private school in NYC so we could not go to Barcelona, but my mother e-mailed Dr. Rigo and the kind soul e-mailed her back during his vacation! What a nice person, I would love to meet him someday. He referred us to three people he taught who are currently in the US: Luke Stikeleather in Fairfax, VA, who makes Cheneau braces and Beth Janssen and Patricia Orthwein in Stevens Point, WI, who teach the Schroth method of physical therapy.
Just last week my mother and I went to Wisconsin to see them. They are a truly wonderful pair along with their co-workers Jan and Julyane. It is a great alternative to going to Barcelona if you can'y go to Spain. They even booked us a great hotel five minutes from their clinic, Scoliosis Rehab. Find out more at scoliosisrehab.org
Well, I am back in NY now but I still don't want surgery. If there is anything anybody knows please write on this forum or contact me:

E-mail: sophiezp@yahoo.com
AIM (but I am rarely on): sophiezp888

Thank you so much guys!

[rainbow2010]

I was very active when I had my surgery at 16. It made me want to recover all that much faster. I know having surgery is a hard decision. I was told because of the rate of progression of my curve, if I didn't have surgery, I would be dead by 30. It made my decision very easy. When my daughter was diagnosed at age 13, we waited a year to see if there would be any progression of her curve. She had increased from 40 to 45 in one year. We decided to have her surgery as soon as school was out that year (she was a freshman and very much into dancing). Six weeks later, just before her surgery, her curve had increased to 48 degrees. She had her surgery and started back to school on time. She was limited in some things. She took dance at shool and only did a little her first semester. By the second half of the year, she was back to doing everything. She danced everyday during her junior and senior years. She was even named Senior Dancer of the Year. She did not let her surgery stop her. She has days when she is sore or tires easily but she keeps going. The whole point of this is surgery is only as bad as you make it. If you are determined to get back to normal quickly, you will. the younger you are the easier it is to recover from surgery. I think if you search some of the posts, you will see that surgery is about the only way to stop the progression of scoliosis.

[AliceL]

Happy Birthday to You!

Hi Sophie,

I just wanted to welcome you to the site! I'm actually quite new to it myself, just joined two weeks ago. I wanted to write and wish you a very Happy Birthday! Even though we don't know each other, we already have three things in common. I have scoliosis, was diagnosed when I was 13, but I had my fusion surgery when I was 14. I am much older than you, but we share the same birthday! Yes, today is my birthday as well! I just turned 44 yo. Yeah, much much older than you! ^-^ The third thing we have in common is that I'm also Chinese.

Since I had my surgery so long ago, and way back then, the method of treatment was quite different, at least so far of what I read here about the recovery phase, I don't have much info for you.. I'm learning a lot on this site as well.

Well, I just wanted to say "Hi", and I'm sure you and your family will find a lot of great information on this forum.