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We went back for another check in. The curve has increased ten degrees in six months, to 60. We've scheduled the surgery for July, after a science camp my teen really wants to attend. There will be about four weeks between surgery and the start of school. The surgeon did not think waiting till July would make any difference in the level of fusion. I can't believe we've gotten to this point but here we are. I guess we just will learn to deal with it. Sigh. :(
It's been a long ride on the scoliosis train for your daughter and you. The train will pull into the station and then your daughter can get on with her life after scoliosis. My daughters look and feel normal. Nothing, finishing high school, going to college, anything, would have been possible without this surgery. It saved them. They also learned that life is unfair and all you can do is play the cards as they lay. Great life lesson. You and your daughter played a good game.
Your daughter will be a star. :-)
Thanks Sharon. Wow who knew when we got on the train where we'd end up. DD is not happy but what more could we have done and what else can we do? I told her the exact same thing on the way home today from the dr. You were felt a bad card but we are going to finish this and move on. It's not cancer. You won't die from this. We can fix it. Be thankful we can fix it.
Precisely. Focus on the fix going forward and look forward to life after treatment.Quote:
Originally Posted by cello_mom
Good luck with your daughters surgery
Cello_mom,
You are one that can't ever look back and say you didn't do EVERYTHING in you power to try to stop this from happening. You can rest assured that your conscience is as clear as they get with the amount of effort you BOTH put into trying to keep your daughter from progressing. I'm not implying that anyone should feel regretful, but you DID everything you could. It's not fair. It's no one's fault. It just happens. I hope your daughter is able to enjoy her summer and be well enough to start school in the fall. Is she in any pain? I only ask because I wouldn't want that to interfere with her camp. If you think about it, even if she continues to progress, July is technically only a little over three months away. So that's not so long. At 10o every six months, assuming that it will continue to progress at that rate, she'll only be at 65o. I say "only" because I'm sure 5o isn't going to affect matters that much surgically. I wish you, your daughter and your whole family the best. Make it a fun summer and enjoy it, get the yucky stuff over, and move on with life. :-)
Cello-mom: Forgive yourself.
Susan [I work on this daily]
Thanks all for the kind words everyone.
She is in discomfort. Her back hurts. A lot. Who said scoliosis I doesn't hurt? Haha liars. Her legs also hurt sometimes, which is not surprising I suppose given the weight of correction her lower back is having to endure to keep her upright. She is most miserable now about the surgery. The loss of flexibility (although she is not a dancer etc.) just the unknowns. Tried having her watch all those endless "I'm so grateful" YouTube videos out there, the ones made by teenage girls set to music where in the end they thank everyone and say they are so glad they did the fusion. My DD grumbles "all the miserable girls didn't bother to make a cheery video." Well, can you blame her for being mad?
Here's a photo edit I made showing her very first X-ray in 2012 and her one from last week, in case anyone is curious what progression looks like despite bracing. Attachment 1584
She's going to go through the stages of grief, it sounds like. Anger is one of them. I think scoliosis makes us all angry at times.Quote:
Originally Posted by cello_mom
I can't imagine that she has too much flexibility now with the curve as big as it is. She may be surprised at how much flexibility she's left with. :-)
That is a large and rapid progression. IF she decides she hurts to badly to go to camp, is there a way to push the surgical date up?
The surgeon really is booked up, operating twice weekly on scoliosis cases, and the timing just isn't there to do it sooner.Quote:
Originally Posted by rohrer01