Hi,
My daughter was dx w/scoliosis last Sept. with a lumbar curve of 18. She was 12.5, no period yet. Now in March a f/u xray showed an S curve of 20/24. If you look at the first one you can see a slight upper curve, but it was not measured b/c it was pretty small. Anyway, she is now 13 as of Feb., still has not had a period, and is a Risser 0.
She was originally taken to the doc b/c she was complaining of shoulder and back pain. She did a few months of PT and tried non-steroidals. Her shoulder pain did get better but her back pain moved into the lumbar area and has stayed.
My husband and I are both in the medical world and are working with 2 different pediatric orthopedic surgeons. One says to brace at 20, the other at 25, but would be fine with bracing her now at 24. One wants to put her in the Providence night brace, the other the Rigo-Cheneau. We have another daughter who has a back problem from gymnastics (spondylolysis) and was recently fitted for a hard back brace. When I started reading about scoliosis braces I realized that we are very fortunate to have already met and worked with an orthotist who is an expert in scoliosis. We just met with him again and he was really pointing us in the direction of the Providence. Then I reminded him of my daughter's pain. She had actually said she wanted the full time brace b/c she thought it would help her pain. When she said that to the orthopedic surgeon he said he had never had a 13 year old girl want a full time brace and maybe something else is going on causing the pain. She then had an MRI which was completely normal. So when I reminded the orthotist of her pain he said the RCS may be helpful with her discomfort.
I really don't know what to do. I really think she doesn't know what she's asking for and will hate wearing a full time brace especially in the summer at camp. If the night time brace is enough to halt the progression I would rather start with that. I think she is also very worried that the night time brace is significantly more uncomfortable because of the over correction.
Anyone with any thoughts?
My daughter was dx w/scoliosis last Sept. with a lumbar curve of 18. She was 12.5, no period yet. Now in March a f/u xray showed an S curve of 20/24. If you look at the first one you can see a slight upper curve, but it was not measured b/c it was pretty small. Anyway, she is now 13 as of Feb., still has not had a period, and is a Risser 0.
She was originally taken to the doc b/c she was complaining of shoulder and back pain. She did a few months of PT and tried non-steroidals. Her shoulder pain did get better but her back pain moved into the lumbar area and has stayed.
My husband and I are both in the medical world and are working with 2 different pediatric orthopedic surgeons. One says to brace at 20, the other at 25, but would be fine with bracing her now at 24. One wants to put her in the Providence night brace, the other the Rigo-Cheneau. We have another daughter who has a back problem from gymnastics (spondylolysis) and was recently fitted for a hard back brace. When I started reading about scoliosis braces I realized that we are very fortunate to have already met and worked with an orthotist who is an expert in scoliosis. We just met with him again and he was really pointing us in the direction of the Providence. Then I reminded him of my daughter's pain. She had actually said she wanted the full time brace b/c she thought it would help her pain. When she said that to the orthopedic surgeon he said he had never had a 13 year old girl want a full time brace and maybe something else is going on causing the pain. She then had an MRI which was completely normal. So when I reminded the orthotist of her pain he said the RCS may be helpful with her discomfort.
I really don't know what to do. I really think she doesn't know what she's asking for and will hate wearing a full time brace especially in the summer at camp. If the night time brace is enough to halt the progression I would rather start with that. I think she is also very worried that the night time brace is significantly more uncomfortable because of the over correction.
Anyone with any thoughts?
Comment