What Would You Do?

[Guest guest]

So, my son Dylan has been out of a cast for going on 2 1/2 years now. He has had follow-up x-rays done at the Shriners Hospital in Tampa and the Shriners Hospital in Chicago. When he first got out of his cast in Chicago, the doctor there said he was "perfectly straight" which I took to mean 0 degrees at the time, but I'm not really for sure he literally meant zero degrees (I have a feeling based on some comment he made that he didn't really measure it, but just eyeballed it). He had follow-up visits while he was in a brace and for 6 months after the brace in Tampa and those consistently showed 3-4 degrees. We flew up to Chicago for one more visit a year after he was out of his brace (6 months out of brace, 1 year since the

cast) and again, the doctor there just said "straight" and told us just to get a follow up x-ray once a year. So, we were a little slow and it has been about 15 months since then and we just had his pediatrician order an x-ray for him at our local imaging center . This x-ray shows 5 degrees. Rationally, I am thinking this is probably nothing to be too alarmed about, since he most likely was never truly at 0 degrees and had the 3-4 degrees that Tampa was seeing. I realize that measurements can vary slightly due to his posture or possibly even who is doing the measurement, etc. (and I don't know that these people had him stand as perfectly straight and still as Shriners did). However, I still hate to hear a number that is higher than what we have heard since he has been out of a cast. The pediatrician mentioned maybe we should do another x-ray in 6 months. I hate all the radiation

exposure, so I'm trying to decide whether to keep with the once a year schedule (assuming we don't visibly notice anything) or whether to go ahead and do another follow-up in 6 months. What do you guys think?

Thanks,