Well my little Willow went in today for her six month check-up.
She slept without the Charleston brace last night and had a hard time. She is only comfortable sleeping in the brace it seems. The surgeon said about half his patients in that brace report that. He also said it is not necessary to stay out of the night-time braces to get an accurate angle like it is for the 23 hour/day braces. So she could have worn it last night and it wouldn't have mattered.
It seems her curve went up from ~33* to ~40* in the last six months. (That's 33.1047* to 40.082634* for you chiro types. )
She still has almost no rotation and the surgeon mentioned that quite a bit. So she's lucky to still look mostly normal even though she has a 40* curve. In fact she has the same amount of shoulder blade protrusion as her sister who was corrected down from 58* to 5*. Amazing.
Maybe the brace is slowing the curve progression from what it would be and maybe it isn't. The curve didn't move at all in the several month period before we got the brace. I suspect it moves when it wants to move irrespective of the brace especially since we have a diagnosis of hypermobility syndrome for Willow.
Her Risser is ~2.5 so she is half way home. If she can stay below surgery territory until she is a 5, she can lose the brace and avoid surgery.
Amazing how my identical twin daughters continue to have totally different curve trajectories.
I brought up the issue that even if she manages to stay at a 40* when her Risser is 5 that she might experience curve progression or pain that might necessitate surgery as an adult (my biggest fear).
He said that only 5% of folks who make it to a Risser of 5 and are below surgery territory ever have progression to surgery territory. That surprised me because of the testimonials on this group. But maybe the 5% is over-represented on this group.
I brought up the issue of adults having surgery due to pain even at a non-surgical Cobb angle and he ABSOLUTELY rejected that OUT OF HAND. He said pain in a smaller curve is due to something else besides the scoliosis.
There is hope Willow can avoid surgery. But if the curve continues to progress at this rate, I think we will pull the trigger for surgery on the next visit in March and that will put her in surgery at the beginning of summer and not have to miss any school. Small mercies.
She slept without the Charleston brace last night and had a hard time. She is only comfortable sleeping in the brace it seems. The surgeon said about half his patients in that brace report that. He also said it is not necessary to stay out of the night-time braces to get an accurate angle like it is for the 23 hour/day braces. So she could have worn it last night and it wouldn't have mattered.
It seems her curve went up from ~33* to ~40* in the last six months. (That's 33.1047* to 40.082634* for you chiro types. )
She still has almost no rotation and the surgeon mentioned that quite a bit. So she's lucky to still look mostly normal even though she has a 40* curve. In fact she has the same amount of shoulder blade protrusion as her sister who was corrected down from 58* to 5*. Amazing.
Maybe the brace is slowing the curve progression from what it would be and maybe it isn't. The curve didn't move at all in the several month period before we got the brace. I suspect it moves when it wants to move irrespective of the brace especially since we have a diagnosis of hypermobility syndrome for Willow.
Her Risser is ~2.5 so she is half way home. If she can stay below surgery territory until she is a 5, she can lose the brace and avoid surgery.
Amazing how my identical twin daughters continue to have totally different curve trajectories.
I brought up the issue that even if she manages to stay at a 40* when her Risser is 5 that she might experience curve progression or pain that might necessitate surgery as an adult (my biggest fear).
He said that only 5% of folks who make it to a Risser of 5 and are below surgery territory ever have progression to surgery territory. That surprised me because of the testimonials on this group. But maybe the 5% is over-represented on this group.
I brought up the issue of adults having surgery due to pain even at a non-surgical Cobb angle and he ABSOLUTELY rejected that OUT OF HAND. He said pain in a smaller curve is due to something else besides the scoliosis.
There is hope Willow can avoid surgery. But if the curve continues to progress at this rate, I think we will pull the trigger for surgery on the next visit in March and that will put her in surgery at the beginning of summer and not have to miss any school. Small mercies.
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