Good News

[leokatmom]

I have followed this forum for 4 years posting only occasionally. My daughter's 14 degree degree curve was found when she was 11 . Risser 0. She will turn 15 in September.Within one year it jumped to 32 , time for bracing. She is wearing her 3rd boston brace in 3 years. It has been very difficult at times,many tears and arguments. The curve went down while in the brace but she was late (July 2007 ) starting her period and I often feared it would increase. At her appt last week there is no change in her curves ,now 11T and 21L ,since December 2007. The docs think she is done growing . Risser 4.
She was instructed to wear her brace at night only and only thru the end of this year.She has refused to wear her brace to school for the last few months and I have prayed and prayed for good results since the last appt. I feel I can finally stop holding my breath .Yeah !! We have been told that usually within about 2 years her curve will settle back to the original 32. And the normal progression we hope for is about 1 degree per decade. I have smiled and cried reading posts here and wish for good results for all our kids. I'm posting now to say don't give up hope and there are also success stories with the brace.

[Pooka1]

Geez that is so great to read a bracing success story.

Truly uplifting. I can't recall reading many others where the brace held the curve though I'm sure there are others.

I'm going to mention this to my one daughter who is wearing a night-time bending brace. Her identical twin needed fusion surgery last month so this might give her more hope that her brace will hold her curve. Thanks for posting it.

Congratulations to you and your daughter. It's a huge achievement.

[leokatmom]

Thanks. I know my daughter is one of the lucky ones. I looked constantly for posts telling of successful bracing. I found some here but many more at spinekids forum. I think for many folks scoliosis finally no longer rules their lives and they move on.

[HaleyMom]

Yahhhhh!!!!! Great news.
We're hoping for the same success.

One of the things "watch and wait until surgery" orthos tell you is that children in hard braces often regress to their pre-brace curvature after several years out of their brace. How long do they plan to follow up on your daughter after she's completely out of her brace - 1, 2, 5 years????

Are there any parents on this forum that wore a brace as a child and maintained their end-of-brace curvature?

[MJB]

That is really great news! It's great to hear such good success stories!

[leahdragonfly]

long-term correction after bracing

Hi HaleyMom,

This is in regards to your question about brace correction lasting into adulthood. I was diagnosed at age 13 with a 33 degree lumbar and 32 degree thoracic curves. I wore a boston brace about two years, and finally simply refused to wear it any more although my ortho had not given me permission to stop (don't take that as permission to quit yours, kids!). I was pretty well skeletally mature when I came out of the brace. I have my old medical records, and my curves 3-months post-bracing were noted to be "about 20 degrees and 20 degrees." That was in 1983.

I recently had my first set of scoliosis films in 25 years, due to problems noted below, and my curves were as follows: thoracic 23 degrees, lumbar 35 degrees. So your ortho's prediction of 1 degree progression per 10 years is about what I had in the thoracic curve. Unfortunately my lumbar has progressed quite a bit more, but maybe that is due to spinal instability, degeneration, and a pseudoarthrosis in a fusion I had in 1984 for spondylolisthesis.

Gayle

[leokatmom]

Haleymom,
She will be checked yearly at Scottish Rite of Texas until she is 18. After that I will encourage her to get checked every couple of years at another specialist. I took her brother to an orthopaedist for something else recently. He said these kids should be checked throughout adulthood on occasion. He has seen a number of people who were told as children they were done only to find the curve had increased to the point they seek further treatment. So I guess we are never quite done with scoliosis.