Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Scoliosis - the early days

Our doctor's appointment today was not what we hoped for, but what we slightly expected from watching the change in A's back over the past few months.

Her curve has progressed an additional 6 degrees, and Dr. Shilt says that it is a good indication that it will only continue to worsen. The plan now is to come back on three months (May 5) and do another set of x-rays to see where we are at. If all goes as he anticipates (based on what the last three months showed) we will be doing another CT scan after that, and then schedule the surgery. His desire is that she get older and bigger so he can use hardware (rods) to stabilize what he does in surgery, so we are really just trying to buy her some time.

Her rotation of the spine has really begun to worsen, which is a concern because of the stress that it can put on the lungs. He said that more than likely we are looking at a summer-time surgery. I'd love to push it to the fall, but we'll see what God has in mind.