spinecor

[MATJESNIC]

Hi Everyone,

Megan, it seems as though your daughter is doing well with Spinecor. That's great.

My daughter has a shoe lift. The problem is that she can't wear it in flip flops or other shoes. She is hardly ever wearing her sneakers in the summer.

As far as correction is concerned, 2nd opinions are always a good idea. There are so many different ways to wear Spinecor (10 ways, in fact!!!) and of course there are varying degrees of tightness.

The brace is only as good as the doctor who fits your daughter in it.

I'm sure there are many mistakes made that can easily result in failure of the brace. That may be one reason Spinecor hasn't caught on.

Gerbo, I didn't know you had a son. That's great.

Celia, I didn't know you had a son, either. Awesome!!

You all know about my other kids because I have told you about them. So I won't bore you with details.

Take care,

Melissa

[meagain]

Sherie and Melissa: Olivia's left foot is pronated and she has very flat feet. Her feet were actually stuck upright on the front of her legs when she was born. But, the doc wasn't concerned and they eventually flexed down.

Her legs are the same length, but her left ankle is lower to the ground than the right. All along I was asking this leg length question and kind of getting blank looks.

One chiropracter put a lift in and one took it out. So, at the recommendation of Dr. Gorrie we will go with about a 3/8 inch foot leveler.

Leveling makes a difference when measuring.

I'm concerned about summer shoes too- we'll be checking out Foot Leveler's catalog for flip-flops and probably get an insert for tennis shoes. Megan

[meagain]

Sherie: The 3/8 inch lift was just put under her foot for the x-ray. Sorry, I rambled on without answering your question. Megan

[Sherie]

lifts

Thanks Megan. It's so funny this came up. Yesterday my daughter had her 2nd session with the personal trainer and the first thing she did was measure Sheena's leg from her belly button to ankles. It appears her left leg is 1/2" longer. I'm a little upset that the dr. never thought to do this. On a positive note, Sheena really likes going to the gym and so far, we are doing torso rotation and a lot of stretches and leg strengthening exercises.

Melissa, I wanted to give our doc a chance with his program and he is in the same area as me, therefore convenience is a big factor for us. But I appreciate the advice and will definitely go to another dr. if there hasn't been a significant improvement next week and will discontinue the program most likely, it's consuming a lot of our time and not to mention money.

[gerbo]

On a positive note, Sheena really likes going to the gym and so far, we are doing torso rotation

what are you using for this?


Big check up day for lisanna tomorrow; Q scan, brace adjustment with mr mills, X ray and orthopaedic review, it'll be fun (?????)

[Celia]

Gerbo,

Fingers crossed for good results tomorrow! What's a Q scan ?

[Sherie]

Gerbo,

We are using the torso rotation equipment at the health club.
Hope your appt goes well today.


We had another very disappointing 3 mth checkup. Very little change, so we are planning a trip to Montreal before summer break is over. We are also discontinuing therapy there. I am going in friday to consult with a Pneumex dr and also plan to continue the exercise program on our own.

[Karen Ocker]

pneumex

Sherie:

If you search the forum there are numerous Pneumex posts but I have not seen anything about long term improvement.

Maybe you can PM those people to see how they made out.

[gerbo]

Gerbo,

Fingers crossed for good results tomorrow! What's a Q scan ?

q-scan = quantec scan which is a method which uses dots placed on skin over vertebrae to get an impression of the scoliosis angle and also horizontal light beams (making you look like a zebra) giving an impression of the bodycontours. Doesn't use radiation and apparantly gives a reasonable correlation with findings on x ray.

Results; not bad with an angle of 18 degree in brace, still, although strangely enough had to battle to convince the consultant to actually measure the angle; "what difference does it make whether i measure or not????" He was in a rather awkward mood not really wanting to enter in any serious questions ("I have been a consultant for many years, you know") and quite dismissive of the spinecor ("I am only using it because this was what was used here when i started working here") and " where i was trained we never braced anybody, and just observed as "bracing hasn't shown to make any difference". Just what lisanna wanted to hear ("why am i using this in the first place then")

Anyway, care and dedication of mr mills, the spinecor man did make up for it a lot, and at least, with regards to bracing we are getting what we want out of the department. A bit more constructive attitude of consultant would help though.....

[MATJESNIC]

Gerbo,

That is really good that Lisanna is 18 degrees in the brace. I don't remember what she is without the brace. I wonder if they are familiar with that method in Montreal. I will ask next week. I'm very happy for you.

Melissa

[Celia]

Gerbo,

This is good news when you consider that Lisanna is right in the middle of the adolescent growth spurt! This is probably not what you want to hear but I'm one of those "glass half full rather than half empty" kind of people How accurate are the Q scans relative to x-rays? Nevertheless, it's great they're trying to reduce the radiation exposure by using alternative measures.

What is with the consultant ?????? I think the excitement is just too much for him

[tmom]

About Pneumex...

My son was doing Pneumex for 9 month 2-3 times a week (if anybody remembers my previous posts, yes, we went through all of this: hard brace, Pneumex, Spinecor, Schroth, you name it…). Anyway, during that time his curve only worsened from 30th to 40th. To me, Pneumex looked like a good system that makes sense, but now I kind of think that for the primary lumbar curve that my son has, it totally not working, if you look what Pneumex offers. Maybe for higher curves it works better, don’t know. Or maybe our PT didn’t know a lot…hard to say now. I don’t want to disappoint anybody, just to share our experience. That’s what this forum is all about….

[Sherie]

Thanks for sharing your experience about Pneumex, good or bad. We are going tomorrow morning for a consultation. From what I've read, and in general this seems to be true for all therapies, it works better for curves of lesser degrees. My daughter's lumbar is already 45 deg, so I'm not expecting any miracles, but hope for any improvement. The system also makes sense to me, if it truly isolates the muscles that stabilize the spine.

[pat]

check-up went well

Hello, we had our 9 month check-up; everyone's pleased, her #'s and rotation are holding with her brace. Did some readjustments (she grew some), and got new straps. Unfortunately, my husband (Dad!) took her, and didn't come home with any paperwork, so I've got to call and get the #'s myself! pat

[Allegra]

scoliosis

wow ok I have been following this whole thread (or whatever you call it) for about a month now. I've read all 54 pages and decided to finally do some posting.

I'm Allegra and I live in California. I'm 14, and i'm pretty sure I have scoliosis. Last year, when I was in 7th grade, they did a school screening, but my mom didn't sign me up for it because the testers were only volunteers, like parent helpers from the pta or something. I wasn't too worried untill last December. My back is sloped just a little more than other people's. I don't know if it's a serious problem, but both my shoulder blades do kinda of stick out. I did a lot of research, and, of course, found spinecor.

I told both my parents, but they don't believe me. I could just be paranoid, but I would really like to go the doctor just to make sure..you know, to calm my fear. Both of my mom's sisters came to visit from the east coasta couple of weeks ago, so I asked them what they thought. They think I'm just being paranoid. Maybe I am!

My last resort is to wait until high schol starts in a month or 2 when we do sports. If I want to try out for a sport, I have to have a physical. Maybe during this, I can ask the doctor.

But for now.....this is all I can think about. Being parents yourselves, I was hoping you might be able to help me. I can't believe I want to prove this when I could end up in a brace, but I just want a better life when I'm older, even if it means a little suffering now.

Thank you in advance for taking time to read this, and possibly offering advice. From what I've read, you seem to be a wonderful support group. That's why I'm asking all of you.

<3
Allegra