Scoliosis Support Group

Hi Hiirm. (:
I just recently had surgery (last month), and believe me: I did everything I could to postpone it.
But my parents went all for it at the time, because it's better to get it over and done with while your young. Kids and teenagers bounce back so easily, it's amazing.
I would get it done now.
I'm 15 also, and when your niece has a car and all that new freedom, she's going to want to use it.

I suggest talking to different orthopedic doctors, though. Three rods sounds like a bit much. If she does get three rods placed in her spine, I'm sorry to say her mobility is going to be decreased. I do hope everything goes well for you and her.
I can relate with everything, and I'll keep her in my thoughts.

I can't see the point in waiting. The sooner she does it the sooner she will be recovered and able to move on in life. If there is nothing stopping it then why not now? I know it's very scary but she will be in good hands. I'm 4 years on from my surgery...everything went well and I have no problems now. Best of luck.

Hello Hiirm,
I was 9 when my mother relised my spine was curved from a CAT scan. Just a year after we relised that i got an x-ray of my spine and i had a 20 degree curve and my mother and I thought it was nothing to worry about. About a year or two later i got my curve checked again and it curved to 53 degree. Just recently in June i had spinal fusion surgary which my family and i were having second thoughts about but just after the surgary we relised that the decision to hav the surgary was the best decision we ever made. I suggest to you and your neice to have the surgary done as soon as you can to get it over with because once your out of the hospital and at home for about 3 weeks or so you'll feel alot better and you'll want to be doing the stuff you could do befor such as being active and playing sports if thats what you like to do. I wish you the best and i hope everything goes well with your neice.

The sooner the better. Once a curve reaches 40 degrees - no matter what type of curve it is (idiopathic, 0r its etiology or how ot started is unknown) or if it secondary to some specific skeletal disorder or other illness like say Marfan's for example, - once ANY curve reaches (using the Cobb analysis of determining its measurement) - that is an indication for surgery of some kind, usually spinal fusion.

The longer a curve is allowed to progress, the more complications anyone will face. One illustration is pulmonary issues. She likely has had some respiratory testing done and especially in thoracic area curves, respiratory problems can become worse.

No, I see absolutely NO good reason to wait. The sooner she has a date for her surgery (typically a spinal fusion) though some of us have very complex situations and it would take an entire book to describe mine ( I have given lectures at Harvard on it, lol) . Thankfull though, THE most common type of scoliosis is idiptahic and it affects more young women and is noticed usually at puberty. That type is really so much more easily dealt with than when I was a teenager that I almost envy kids today (almost but I know from treating kids myself that some procedures can frig ten kids while others take it all in stride. I have one patient for ex who loathes blood work bt does not mind neogastric tubes, Go figure! I have to sort of smile to myself when I write that because when I had my surgeries (some 25 plus but as I say, do NOT compare my situation to hers!) , the woman who was doing the spiro testing explained how she was a year and a half in a cast and I would only have six months- this was after Nov-Feb in hospital and relearning to walk and halo femoral traction which again I am sure she will not need to have. She COULD end up with some of those complex problems if she allows the curve to grow and affect other parts of her body however - especially cardiopulomary!

Good luck! And aim for a fast as you can surgery!