13 year old daughter with a 44 degree lumbar curve

[Pooka1]

Coolblue! Great hearing from you about your daughter's amazing progress and really her return to a normal life. It sounds like the surgery was a complete success and your daughter has moved past scoliosis.

For our family, we have moved completely past scoliosis and it just never comes up. My daughters lead normal lives. One is doing her second internship that requires lifting heavy weights and being out in the wilderness. The only reason she is upright and functional is the surgery.

[coolblue]

5 Year Update

Hey Folks,

Apologies for the long hiatus. Its gonna be 5 years since the surgery and everyone who sees the xrays talks about the spine surgery being like a work of art. We were fortunate to have been operated by Dr. Rajshekheran and his team at Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore, INDIA. I believe they are among the foremost in the field of Spine Surgery in this part of the world and I would unhesitatingly recommend him.


Daughter is doing great. One Appendix surgery and a knee ligament partial tear later (sigh) she is in first year of college and loving every bit of her independence. Scars have also become lighter and she does not seem too conscious about it.

Thanks again for all help, support and good wishes during those trying times.

God Bless....

CoolBlue

[titaniumed]

Cool, thanks for chiming in with the good news on your daughter. Tell her I said congratulations! (smiley face)

Ed

[susancook]

So glad that your daughter is doing well.

Jerky rides? I do not suggest it! She has the rest of her life to do the roller coaster, but this soon after surgery, probably not.

Memory foam topper? Ahhhhhh....... Highly recommended. Do you have friends that have a memory foam topper? Maybe she could try theirs first. I purchased mine at Costco (? Do you have access to Costco?). I love it!

Wishing her continued healing.

Susan

[Pooka1]

Excellent news about your daughter's achievements, both academic and recovering for surgery. Thank you for updating the group.

For parents who are honestly worried abut life post-fusion, I think they should try very hard to imagine what their child's life would be life without the surgery. In my case, I believe one or both of them would be dead (fast-moving curves that may never have stopped curving) and neither would have had a high school much less college career because they would be so twisted up they may never have left the house.

I am not saying all kids who need surgery but don't get it would have a bad outcome. I am saying there is reason there is a near total consensus on fusing certain curves in adolescents. There is a reason for that.

[coolblue]

18 Month Update

Hi All,

Just wanted to update you that my daughter passed her class X exams by securing max possible CGPA of 10. Is a great achievement for her considering she had her surgery during Class VIII and the whole year was a washout at least as far as her studies were concerned.

She is otherwise doing great and living life as normally as a teenager would. She does swimming as often as she can. I'm trying her to start yoga as this would help her throughout her life. Would go back to the doctor in about six months time for a review but hopefully things would be OK.

We consider ourselves blessed that it all worked out well in the end. Thanks again to all fellow members who chipped in with their words of advice and encouragement.

CB

[LindaRacine]

coolblue... What levels were fused? Would it be possible to post a photograph of her lateral postoperative xray?

While I would never recommend that you suggest that your daughter disobey the surgeon in terms of riding roller coasters, I think most surgeons remove pretty much all restrictions on kids at about 6 months postop.

It's hard to know if a memory foam topper will help your daughter. We're all so different, and I don't think any of us really know about such things until we try them. I used soft memory foam toppers for many years, and loved the way they feel. Then, I ordered a memory foam bed for my guest bedroom. It's far firmer than any of the toppers I used. And, for some reason, I really love it. I swapped my top of the line Sleep Number bed for the cheap memory foam bed, and can't imagine ever switching back. The good news is that (at least in the U.S.), the toppers are pretty inexpensive, so trying it isn't too much of a risk.

--Linda

[coolblue]

5 Monthly Update

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to update regarding my daughter's progress. She is now 5 month post-op and doing great. In fact looking at her another classmate of hers opted for surgery with the same doctor.

Last month over video conference the Doc allowed her to start swimming. She is doing great apart from feeling stiff and sometimes sore as a result of the stiffness. Yesterday we went to consult with the local doctor who was very impressed with her correction.

There are some concerns / queries on which I wanted the groups advise:

1. She still has a significant arch (high lordosis) which causes her chest and bums to protrude out. The local doctor looked at the xray and said that from the film everything looked great and probably the body would adjust in some time. My wife is very concerned with this as her gait looks very odd. Will the body eventually adjust.

2. Her school is organising a trip to the US next month where they would be visiting among others Universal Studios and Disney World. My daughter is super excited and crazy about adventure rides like roller coasters etc. The local doctor is not comfortable with it. It breaks my heart to tell her not to sit on them after going so far. Nonetheless I promised her to post it on the forum

3. To help sore back whilst sleeping should I invest in a memory foam topper? Will it be of help.

Look forward to your thoughts

CB

[Pooka1]

okay I'll empty them.

[jrnyc]

off topic....
(sorry)...

Sharon....your messages are full...

jess...and Sparky

[Pooka1]

Here it is... it is only when I wrote about Dr. Hey that I remembered it was on his blog...

http://drlloydhey.blogspot.com/2014/...dolescent.html

What is really cool about Dr. Lafage's research is that she was able to show that over the 2 years after scoliosis surgery, the lumbar discs actually REHYDRATED after the surgical realignment of the spine above the discs. This happened at ALL lumbar levels when the pelvic incidence was low (most common in AIS), and in some levels with high pelvic incidence (PI). This research suggests that the realignment was actually REVERSING the early damage to the lumbar discs, which would be our hope to allow those lower 2-4 lumbar discs to last the patient another 80+ years!

[Pooka1]

Her curves are in single digit along with a good correction of the rotation as well.

This seems like the key to avoiding another surgery. We have a woman on the group who was fused I think 6 years ago to L4 and her disc below that is fine. Hopefully now that your daughter's spine no longer technically has scoliosis (<10*) and was derotated, she will be okay for life. There was an article recently about how hyper correction matters in terms of disc health below the fusion. I will try to remember where I saw that. It's why Dr. Hey stands on his head to correct lumbars.

[Pooka1]

That's such great news, coolblue!

Kids recovery pretty quickly. She will seem back to normal before her activity restrictions are lifted if she has any. That is the hard part... reminding them to take it easy when they feel completely fine.

Onward and upward!

[coolblue]

Update

Hey Guys,


All your prayers and wishes worked !

We are back home. Dear daughter is fine and is already moving around albeit with braces. Normal diet ( a bit extra thanks to her protective parents to try and increase her heamoglobin levels).

She is about 1.5 inches taller and is waiting to show off her new found height gain to her friends. All the pain, nausea, dizziness are a thing of the past.

As of now she has been prescribed pain meds on SoS basis which she has not taken yet. She is fused T4 to L4. Her curves are in single digit along with a good correction of the rotation as well. She has been fitted with a Co-Cr rod along with a Titanium Rod. I have noticed a slight bit of left chest wall protrusion and a slight forward lean but the doc says it would all fall in place.

All of us are very happy with the outcome. Fingers crossed.

Coolblue

[springchicken]

Hi there,
Thinking of you guys and hoping your daughter heals quickly! One thing she might try for constipation when out of the hospital is warm prune juice. Sounds kind of gross but I found it helped. I used to just pop a glass in the microwave for a little bit.
Hang in there!
-spring