I find this discussion interesting re: when curves will progress the most during puberty, etc.
Sharon: You have a really interesting comparison study with identical twins! If we were genetically wired to progress a certain number of degrees at certain points in our lives, then their curves would have been the same, I would think. There must be other factors that I'm sure someone will discover someday.
Just to add my own data to this: My scoliosis wasn't discovered until I was 14, when it was already at 47 degrees - I went in for an X-ray because I was having back pain, and this was what they found. I've looked at pictures of myself a year earlier and there's barely any difference between the levels of my shoulders, but a year later, when the X-ray was taken, there's a huge difference. I'd be really curious as to how many degrees my curve progressed that year. They X-rayed me again 3 months after the first X-ray, right before my surgery, and I was at 62 degrees! I was curving very quickly - but who knows if it would have stopped after what was probably my "growth spurt".
Re: children being part of the process for the decision for surgery: My dad was pretty much resigned to the surgery, but my mom, in that pre-internet period of time, did all the "call around" research she could to find alternatives. She found out about things like electrical stimulation, and asked me if I was interested. But I could really tell something was wrong with my body (getting more back pain, getting shortness of breath) and somehow I knew I didn't have time to try other things. I told her I was O.K. with the surgery, that I thought I needed it, and she accepted this and stopped researching. I was comfortable with how everything went, but sometimes felt kind of bad for stressing out my mom for wanting surgery.
So that's my more than 2 cents worth
Sharon: You have a really interesting comparison study with identical twins! If we were genetically wired to progress a certain number of degrees at certain points in our lives, then their curves would have been the same, I would think. There must be other factors that I'm sure someone will discover someday.
Just to add my own data to this: My scoliosis wasn't discovered until I was 14, when it was already at 47 degrees - I went in for an X-ray because I was having back pain, and this was what they found. I've looked at pictures of myself a year earlier and there's barely any difference between the levels of my shoulders, but a year later, when the X-ray was taken, there's a huge difference. I'd be really curious as to how many degrees my curve progressed that year. They X-rayed me again 3 months after the first X-ray, right before my surgery, and I was at 62 degrees! I was curving very quickly - but who knows if it would have stopped after what was probably my "growth spurt".
Re: children being part of the process for the decision for surgery: My dad was pretty much resigned to the surgery, but my mom, in that pre-internet period of time, did all the "call around" research she could to find alternatives. She found out about things like electrical stimulation, and asked me if I was interested. But I could really tell something was wrong with my body (getting more back pain, getting shortness of breath) and somehow I knew I didn't have time to try other things. I told her I was O.K. with the surgery, that I thought I needed it, and she accepted this and stopped researching. I was comfortable with how everything went, but sometimes felt kind of bad for stressing out my mom for wanting surgery.
So that's my more than 2 cents worth
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