A Visit to Children's Hospital

Grace and Olivia had their semi-annual visit to Children's Hospital for x-rays and a visit with Dr. White to see how their scoliosis is progressing - or more hopefully, not progressing! We are so proud of Grace and Olivia and how willingly they wear their brace to their spine grow straight.

A typical visit to the orthopedic surgeon...

Simply put, it's a lot of waiting for a little bit of checking.

While taking a walk after checking in Grace discovered this silly frog.


Waiting in the waiting room...

x-ray time! The best part of the x-rays are the stickers afterward!

After the x-rays, we go back out to the waiting room and wait to be called back in for our visit with Dr. White, our Orthopedic Surgeon. And then of course once we are called back in we do a little more waiting for the dr. to arrive. Gratefully we were put in a room with working white board pens this time. Children's is the best.

When Dr. White arrives, he has Grace and Olivia do a few simple exercises like bend over and touch their toes, hop on one foot, etc. Usually they get to change into a Bugs Bunny gown but not today - what a bummer. Then Dr. White goes over the x-rays with me for a couple of minutes.

Some history/perspective...Back in April of 2007 Grace was diagnosed with a double curve making her spine look like an "S". Both curves measured 38 degrees. Shortly thereafter, Olivia was also diagnosed with a double curve that looked like a backward "S" (wierd huh?!). Both her curves measured 28 degrees. Curves under 20 degrees will usually be treated with a "wait and see," while curves over 25 degrees are usually braced. Once the curve is over 45-60 degrees (depending on the orthopedic surgeon) they start talking surgery. The purpose of the brace is not to "fix" the scoliosis, but rather to help the spine grow straight and prevent the curve from progressing. If the curve doesn't progress while in brace then it's working :) and bracing is continued.

So...after all that, the brace is working for both Grace and Olivia. Six months ago, Grace's curves were 29 degrees and 31 degrees. At this visit they were 30 degrees and 35 degrees.

Six months agao, Olivia's curves were 17 degrees and 21 degrees and then 16 degrees and 25 degrees at yesterday's visit.

And there you have it - Our trip to Children's! Of course the three of us stopped off at for pasta on the way home at University Village to avoid 5 o'clock traffic. Appointment days have always been validating so far. Olivia and Grace get kudos for wearing their brace and I'm reassured as the numbers stay below the initial diagnosis. This is such a long term experience that I know our visits might not always be so validating, but until then, I'll take what we have!