Hi, all. I'm curious about the experience that those of you who are adults had regarding advice to have surgery. Briefly, I wore Boston brace as a teen and had many years and 4 children and now at age 44 have curves of 54T/61L, yet I do not have significant pain. I get achy, but not much more. Not enough to even take ibuprofen, as it typically goes away if I lie down for 10 minutes or so.
I have seen doctors at Georgetown (Lauerman) and John Hopkins (Kebaish) and they both seem to favor waiting and watching. Each cleared me to go two more years before I return to them (for JH now that is another year away). My curve appears to be progressing slowly at this time. Neither dr. felt there is a significant difference between operating on me at 44 or 54, but both expressed 70 degrees as a "milestone" where they felt they start to see some of the correction benefits lessen. It seems to me that many on this forum might disagree about there being a difference between having the surgery mid-40's vs. mid-50's?? Perhaps the dr.s are referring more to the success of the surgery than the recovery time.
I vascillate between: a) if younger is better for the surgery and it is VERY likely I'll need to do this some day, let's go ahead and do it; and b) let's ride this out as long as we can before having surgery while quality of life is still great....Things are complicated by the fact that my youngest child is only turning 4 this summer. Even in scenario a) I am thinking it makes sense to wait until he is in Kindergarten at least (another 1-1/2 years). As I have 4 kids ranging from age almost 4 to just turned 14, even under scenario b) it is likely that I will still have kids at home when I move forward with the surgery, albeit older and less of them in another 5-8 years.
Any thoughts? Any adults had surgery without much pain but significant curves, but because they know that they will need at some point and surgery is easier if younger?
Secondary question: As I consider getting another opinion (Dr. Boachie-? in NY seems to come up a lot and would not be a horrible distance for me), do you have thoughts on the benefits of the proximity of the surgeon to your home? i.e. Lauerman is 10 min. away and Kebaish is 1 hr. and both have, I think, excellent reputations, however, are not the dr.s I read about again and again on this forum for the surgery like Lenke and Boachie.
Thank you so much for any thoughts you might have on these topics. I realize, like so many things in life, there is probably not a wholly right or wrong path and am just looking for some extra feedback from those who have "walked the walk"!
Take care!
I have seen doctors at Georgetown (Lauerman) and John Hopkins (Kebaish) and they both seem to favor waiting and watching. Each cleared me to go two more years before I return to them (for JH now that is another year away). My curve appears to be progressing slowly at this time. Neither dr. felt there is a significant difference between operating on me at 44 or 54, but both expressed 70 degrees as a "milestone" where they felt they start to see some of the correction benefits lessen. It seems to me that many on this forum might disagree about there being a difference between having the surgery mid-40's vs. mid-50's?? Perhaps the dr.s are referring more to the success of the surgery than the recovery time.
I vascillate between: a) if younger is better for the surgery and it is VERY likely I'll need to do this some day, let's go ahead and do it; and b) let's ride this out as long as we can before having surgery while quality of life is still great....Things are complicated by the fact that my youngest child is only turning 4 this summer. Even in scenario a) I am thinking it makes sense to wait until he is in Kindergarten at least (another 1-1/2 years). As I have 4 kids ranging from age almost 4 to just turned 14, even under scenario b) it is likely that I will still have kids at home when I move forward with the surgery, albeit older and less of them in another 5-8 years.
Any thoughts? Any adults had surgery without much pain but significant curves, but because they know that they will need at some point and surgery is easier if younger?
Secondary question: As I consider getting another opinion (Dr. Boachie-? in NY seems to come up a lot and would not be a horrible distance for me), do you have thoughts on the benefits of the proximity of the surgeon to your home? i.e. Lauerman is 10 min. away and Kebaish is 1 hr. and both have, I think, excellent reputations, however, are not the dr.s I read about again and again on this forum for the surgery like Lenke and Boachie.
Thank you so much for any thoughts you might have on these topics. I realize, like so many things in life, there is probably not a wholly right or wrong path and am just looking for some extra feedback from those who have "walked the walk"!
Take care!
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