6 year old daughter for surgery

[kyra2004]

hi, My name is Lindsay and i'm new to this site. My daughter was diagnosed with idiopathic infantile scoliosis at the age of 8 months. Her original curve was 35 degrees, within a month she was up to 54 degrees. We have went through bracing, casting, and chiropractic care and nothing seems to work. At her last appointment in late October she was up to a 70 degree curve. We are scheduled for the growth rod surgery on Nov 16th at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. I am a registered nurse by profession which im thankful for in many ways when it comes to understanding a lot of the medical terminology and risk/benefits of surgery, but i feel like my whole world is going to crash and im scared to death of her having this done. Anyone have any words of wisdom, encouragement, or advice for me? Also anyone been through this lately that could fill me into how the recovery time is? Thanks so much.

[mariaf]

Hi Lindsay,

I'm so sorry to hear this. I know that casting can sometimes be effective on infants and very young children. But then there are always those curves that are not responsive. I assume that at some point your daughter has had an MRI to rule out any underlying causes and that this is just a case of an aggressive idiopathic curve in a very young child.

I do not have personal experience with growing rods and recovery times but I know that kids are very resilient and within a short amount of time I'm sure your daughter will be back to her old self. And you should take comfort in the fact that you have delayed surgery for nearly 6 years.

Best of luck and please keep us posted!

[kyra2004]

thanks

Thanks for responding. My daughter has had two MRI's and they both were negative for any other issues. I am happy that we were able to delay surgery as long as we did but the question will always be in my mind that maybe there was something else i could have done to delay it even longer. I hate feeling this way, like it my fault, but i cant help it. She is taking it very well, as much as she understands of everything that is going on but i have not told her about the every six months surgeries yet. I figured just take it one step at a time. .........

[kennedy]

Well i now two little girls on youtube one is six and the orther is 8 i think they both had that surgery.