Tweet
Mylttlebug,
Hi, a year ago we were in a similar situation when my then almost 7 year old was diagnosed with scoli. You can see my daughter's specifics in the signature, below. We saw numerous pediatric orthopedists and many said to wait 6 months and then continue to wait until she progressed. I can understand your desire to try and take other actions rather than simply waiting. Especially since there is close to a decade of growth left which can contribute to further progression of the curve.
That was a choice we made as well. I don't know if it will help (although I certainly hope it will!), but as long as it does no harm and we go in with our eyes open, it's worth a shot. When you are at the stage when they are telling you to wait, it's easier to make a choice to use "alternate treatments" such as spinecor and try physical therapy than when the spine specialists are recommending a particular brace or treatment that you don't want to use. If we had waited - doing nothing- and then she had a big jump in the size of her curve (which I have seen happen with some of the children on these boards) I would always regret that we had done nothing. With spinecor and a little pilates which helps her strengthen her core muscles, maybe we are helping...however, she may still have a large jump in her curve. If so, we'll have to reevaluate what to do going forward but we should be no worse off than if we did nothing. In the short term, though, it was an easy decision. Even if spinecor only delays the progression, at least it buys my daughter a little more time to run around without the restrictions of a hard brace. I figure the $ spent on pilates helps her with her dance anyway as it strengthens core muscles so even if it does nothing for scoli, it's not bad (and she's not doing intense pilates, it's really more to improve her proprioceptive awareness which has always been a weak point of hers aside from scoli). And the $ on spinecor has been worth it in my opinion because for the last year she has been walking around with a reduced curve while in brace. That doesn't mean her curve is "fixed", but at least the "erosion" and/or effects of gravity on a curved spine over time were lessened over the past year. However, going into it we realized that we might be throwing that $ away if spinecor didn't help at all and we had to switch treatments - but that was OK with us. Still, I enter all of this with very realistic expectations and realize we may have to change my daughter's treatment over time (or heck, even next month when she gets her next xray)
I do think the important thing is to make sure to do no harm. As Carmell pointed out, it would make sense to get the results of the MRI before engaging in chiro and such. I haven't researched the use of chiro in kids, so I don't know anything about the potential risks, but I'm sure you have.
Anyway, I guess I rambled, but wanted to say Welcome, Good luck, I remember how I felt a year ago when we were in your shoes-it's a tough tough time, but you will all get through it.
Also, Pam brings up a very good point, that "as dangerous as the quacks, in my opinion, are the orthos who will treat a kid for this even though they're far over their head." In hindsight, I am SO grateful that the first orthopedic surgeon we saw (the one who diagnosed her scoliosis) was confident enough in his abilities to admit that he was NOT the one who should be treating her and that we should be finding a pediatric ortho who specializes in spine and sees kids with juvenile scolio on a regular basis.
Hi, a year ago we were in a similar situation when my then almost 7 year old was diagnosed with scoli. You can see my daughter's specifics in the signature, below. We saw numerous pediatric orthopedists and many said to wait 6 months and then continue to wait until she progressed. I can understand your desire to try and take other actions rather than simply waiting. Especially since there is close to a decade of growth left which can contribute to further progression of the curve.
That was a choice we made as well. I don't know if it will help (although I certainly hope it will!), but as long as it does no harm and we go in with our eyes open, it's worth a shot. When you are at the stage when they are telling you to wait, it's easier to make a choice to use "alternate treatments" such as spinecor and try physical therapy than when the spine specialists are recommending a particular brace or treatment that you don't want to use. If we had waited - doing nothing- and then she had a big jump in the size of her curve (which I have seen happen with some of the children on these boards) I would always regret that we had done nothing. With spinecor and a little pilates which helps her strengthen her core muscles, maybe we are helping...however, she may still have a large jump in her curve. If so, we'll have to reevaluate what to do going forward but we should be no worse off than if we did nothing. In the short term, though, it was an easy decision. Even if spinecor only delays the progression, at least it buys my daughter a little more time to run around without the restrictions of a hard brace. I figure the $ spent on pilates helps her with her dance anyway as it strengthens core muscles so even if it does nothing for scoli, it's not bad (and she's not doing intense pilates, it's really more to improve her proprioceptive awareness which has always been a weak point of hers aside from scoli). And the $ on spinecor has been worth it in my opinion because for the last year she has been walking around with a reduced curve while in brace. That doesn't mean her curve is "fixed", but at least the "erosion" and/or effects of gravity on a curved spine over time were lessened over the past year. However, going into it we realized that we might be throwing that $ away if spinecor didn't help at all and we had to switch treatments - but that was OK with us. Still, I enter all of this with very realistic expectations and realize we may have to change my daughter's treatment over time (or heck, even next month when she gets her next xray)
I do think the important thing is to make sure to do no harm. As Carmell pointed out, it would make sense to get the results of the MRI before engaging in chiro and such. I haven't researched the use of chiro in kids, so I don't know anything about the potential risks, but I'm sure you have.
Anyway, I guess I rambled, but wanted to say Welcome, Good luck, I remember how I felt a year ago when we were in your shoes-it's a tough tough time, but you will all get through it.
Also, Pam brings up a very good point, that "as dangerous as the quacks, in my opinion, are the orthos who will treat a kid for this even though they're far over their head." In hindsight, I am SO grateful that the first orthopedic surgeon we saw (the one who diagnosed her scoliosis) was confident enough in his abilities to admit that he was NOT the one who should be treating her and that we should be finding a pediatric ortho who specializes in spine and sees kids with juvenile scolio on a regular basis.
Comment