Kieran Cast 10

[Guest guest]

So we are back from cast 10 for my three year old son. And for several casts

now he is always " about the same " except that he is not. He slowly gets worse.

So that over several casts he is quite a bit worse.

But here is the thing with my son -- he has SEVERE deformities. Not just the

side to side curve,but also rotation and other thoracic problems. Of

everything, his ribs are the worst.

He was never on the cure list. He was only expected to slow progression for a

better long term outcome.

But as his mommy, I so badly wanted to undo what had happened to my beautiful

little boy, the one who used to be straight.

Next cast Kieran will be 4. All my hope of him avoiding surgery slipped almost

away when he turned 3. Now 4 will be the next cast and five casts of " almost

the same " = 12 degrees of progression. So that's that.

But what my son has gotten, is his life saved by casting. The outcome will be

so much better thanks to all of this. He would not be the beautiful, bright

child that he is today if not for the casting. It has made a huge difference in

his life. He was so very upset before he was cast and he really likes the casts

because I think they make him more comfortable.

As for his curve changing in his last cast -- I think it may had something to do

with a couple of joints dislocating somewhere. When he had the five day cast

break he had a rough time until there where a few pops suddenly that seemed to

put everything back for him. I think it is just his condition, it has nothing

to do whatsoever with the casting, which is great, in fact, incredible, and a

huge help to him, a godsend even. Casting is giving my son so much, but not a

cure.

I once mentioned that I was going to try to find out how much the back grows

through childhood. What I was mainly after was how much back growth will a

single growth spurt give, how far apart are growth spurts and how many occur in

each year, in ranges, on average.

What I found instead, which I also wanted to know, but have come across a few

times, is a couple of different studies that indicated how much growth in a year

a child experiences. And this came out to around 2.5 to 3 cm, depending on the

study in the infantile years, as in, before 3, and then by age 5 1.5cm (1 in one

study, 2 as a high in another for some of the years) from age 5 to puberty, and

then 2.5cm (one study said 2cm I think) per year during puberty and 1 cm after

that and declining in the early 20s until all growth is achieved. I would cite

my sources, but I have not gotten around with three kids and a full time job to

being that meticulous, so I am just off the top of my head regurgitating what

stuck in my mind, which was the information that I felt I needed to provide

better informed consent to things involving my son.

I am still looking for how many growth spurts/how much growth in a spurt and how

much growth between spurts and what mainly grows in these circumstances for each

year until age 25. WHY? Well, when a doctor says we should do something I

really want to know the nature of growth for the average child and what we could

expect Kieran to do so that I have proper informed consent to anything done.

Also, it helps me make decisions as to when to do what kind of procedure when

given a choice. And I might even give me ideas that I can suggest for his

treatment or even try at home, such as exercise etc. I am still looking for

this info, and will post my source for growth per year if I come across it again

and do not have three monkeys climbing on me, as I can't start that kind of a

thing the.

But there I go, Kieran has odd skinny bones, severe deformities, and will need

lots, and lots of surgery. Just not now. I am so very thankful for the casts

right now and am not looking forward to the next time I do desperately hope that

maybe, just maybe, my son could be corrected enough to avoid surgery. Bracing

will be in Kieran's future, I don't know when. More casting hopefully after

that. For me this is a terrible nightmare, but I just hope that my son in the

end ends up being happy and reasonably pain free. Because he did not start that

way when this first set in. But I guess I could go on forever, it just is what

it is, and hopefully he will always after now have peace with it. And a long,

healthy life.

Shauna Leamy

mother of Kieran, Kelsey, and