When my daughter was ten and eleven, her ballet teachers used to tell me that they expected great things from her. At twelve, she developed progressive scoliosis and any expectation of greatness fell apart. I have watched her for almost three years completely lose her balance and soundness in ballet. A truly heart-wrenching experience.
Until last December, I could watch my daughter performing a penchee ( http://www.abt.org/education/diction...ms/penche.html ) and her supporting foot and ankle would just wobble back and forth and she would be unable to hold her other leg up. Her ballet teachers were obviously quite frustrated as by this age all other students in the class could perform it perfectly.
This summer, after the accutane and also probably close to the end of her growth spurt, she is rock solid in ballet. It has been an amazing transformation. She can do everything now including a beautiful penchee en pointe (on her toes). According to her, three artistic directors from three major foreign ballet companies have paid close attention to her during class at her summer intensive. She is thrilled and so am I.
I have no idea if the accutane has had anything to do with this transformation, but I think there are enough things jumping up and down screaming "notice me" that has occurred recently, that I am going to write a letter to Dr. Collins at NIH describing my daughter's experience and suggesting maybe a study to see if there's anything to it. Hopefully with his background he might actually be interested and he certainly has the power to start a study. At least I won't have left this very interesting sequence of events to be buried in the e-dust of this site and no one following up on it.
Interestingly enough, because the makers of accutane have recently been losing major lawsuits regarding the safety of their drug, a study has come out testing a "safer" version of accutane. It would be a wonderful confluence of events if a safer version of accutane coincided with a study for scoliosis.
Anyhow, nothing may come of it, but I shall do my part to help in the research of possible cures for scoliosis. It's certainly worth a shot anyway.
Until last December, I could watch my daughter performing a penchee ( http://www.abt.org/education/diction...ms/penche.html ) and her supporting foot and ankle would just wobble back and forth and she would be unable to hold her other leg up. Her ballet teachers were obviously quite frustrated as by this age all other students in the class could perform it perfectly.
This summer, after the accutane and also probably close to the end of her growth spurt, she is rock solid in ballet. It has been an amazing transformation. She can do everything now including a beautiful penchee en pointe (on her toes). According to her, three artistic directors from three major foreign ballet companies have paid close attention to her during class at her summer intensive. She is thrilled and so am I.
I have no idea if the accutane has had anything to do with this transformation, but I think there are enough things jumping up and down screaming "notice me" that has occurred recently, that I am going to write a letter to Dr. Collins at NIH describing my daughter's experience and suggesting maybe a study to see if there's anything to it. Hopefully with his background he might actually be interested and he certainly has the power to start a study. At least I won't have left this very interesting sequence of events to be buried in the e-dust of this site and no one following up on it.
Interestingly enough, because the makers of accutane have recently been losing major lawsuits regarding the safety of their drug, a study has come out testing a "safer" version of accutane. It would be a wonderful confluence of events if a safer version of accutane coincided with a study for scoliosis.
Anyhow, nothing may come of it, but I shall do my part to help in the research of possible cures for scoliosis. It's certainly worth a shot anyway.
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