Scoliosis Support Group

So has anyone here googled the CLEAR institute that Dr.Stitzel mentions in his posting.... well I did and can't find one nice thing said about it....heck just google his name too... you'll see he is (or was) a board member of the CLEAR institute... shocker

Sigh......politics 101.....when you can't attack the idea, attack the man. Typical. Here is the opening line from my every first post on this forum.

"Hello all,
My name is Dr. Clayton Stitzel (feel free to Google me) and I am a co-director of the CLEAR Institute (Check out our 5 min intro video on our website! www.clear-institute.org) which is a non-profit scoliosis research organization."

PS: Becareful......you can't believe everything you read on the internet. ;) That's why I have provided you with references to all my stats/claims and God gave you logic to connect the dots for yourself.

Unless you have actually lived with scoliosisor someone in your family has had it, you really just don't understand. I had the surgery not for cosmetic reasons but to help my quality of life. I had a 82 curve in the thoriac and 85 in the cervical. My backbone was under my left shoulder and my ribs on my pelvis. It had deflated part of my left lung. I was so bent over I could not look at you in the face. I could hardly walk. I knew if I didn't get help I would not live long. I tried for 7 years to get help and kept getting worse. There are only a few drs that actually that can do this surgery on people my age. I am 56. I thank God every day for those caring wonderful surgeons. My dr actually has written many books about this disease.(www.consulting orthopedist.com)

I cannot begin to understand what you have been through, nor will I pretend to. You case was definitely the extreme.

I was purely trying to reach out to anyone that wanted an alternative.

I have worked with scoliosis patients everyday for about 3 years and have been in practice for 17. I am proud that I have kept many children and adults from having to have surgery and lead them to pain free lives and only wanted to share hope of non-surgical treatment with others.
Blessing

My daughter had surgery on August 10th. It was two weeks before school started and she ended up missing 2 1/2 weeks of school. She started doing a lot of things on her own at about the end of three weeks after surgery and it took maybe 5 weeks (at the most) until she was living normally again...school all day, off all pain meds, showering, etc. Those first few weeks are tough and I really feel for you but everyone will get through it fine.

I had my surgury when i was 10. I have the stainless steel. You can't feel the hardware inside or out not even the bone lamps and screws. As far as pain it was the easiest of my many many surguries. I was in the hospital a long time and recovery was slow but that was back in the day before they kept people in the hospital a short a time as possible and got them up as soon as they could. My surgury was definately not cosmetic. I had had so many surguries by the time I had my fusion that my parents had to be very sure it was neccessary each time before putting me through another. I breathed better, felt better, sat better, stood better and walked better after the surgury. My ribcage was slowly crushing my heart and lungs and i think i would be dead or really debilatated by now without it. They considered pt, braces, casts all the non invasive stuff first but at the end of the day the surgury was the only effective treatment. I don't remember the numbers but in photos of me before and after the surgury the difference is visible and remarkable. I got post op infection but i was always getting those, susceptable apparently. I also have skin that makes keloids and the scars where they harvested the bone have them but the back incision does not. No idea what made the difference.

I wish the best for you and your daughter

How did the surgery go?