Marissa's Update

[Guest guest]

Talk about ironic. Marissa and I got back from Erie on Friday to a

ton of email around bracing. I just finished getting through them

all and I must say thanks to all of the tips on PT, exercises, etc

with a brace. Believe it or not, she came home with a brace. This

was all unexpected and I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one

hand, I'm happy that she can take a bath every now and then with her

brother, but on the other hand, I ask myself if it's the best

option.

We arrived planning to have another cast put on. I must say, when we

took the cast off before our flight, her back looked the best it's

ever been. Naked eyes couldn't tell unless you were really looking

for it. Rib hump almost gone. She's been in the cast for a year now

and as some of you know, her top curve is corrected and the bottom

lumbar started at 46 and is now 20 out of cast. From day one, it's

never gotten worse. We treated it right away and it's consistently

improved since the initial diagnosis. It's been twenty out of cast

for the last four casts.

They took Marissa into the OR and I went to have lunch. As I grabbed

my stuff and headed back to the waiting room, Dr. was heading

there. As you can imagine, I was worried something was wrong. He

showed me the out of cast x-ray and said that although her back

looked great clinically, the lumbar curve remained at 20. He thought

that Jonanthan could get a nice mold and a brace would be a good

option for her at this time. Because it's a lumbar curve, he can't

seem to get the correction in cast lower than 14 or so. He feels the

brace will continue to do the same thing as a cast if we're diligent

and keep it on her, which obviously we'll do. The rotation in

brace/cast is zero. In fact, I must say, the in brace x-ray looked

awesome at 15, with no rotation.

I trust Dr. extremely as he's done a great job at caring for

all of these kiddos. On one hand, he feels that she'll do just fine

this way as she grows, it'll accomplish what the cast would have

accomplished. In two months, we'll see the progress. In fact,

seemed very optimistic that this treatment can be successful

as he'll continue to add padding to push this lumbar curve as she

grows. On the other hand, I want to be aggressive and correct this

thing if possible. aaaaggghhhhh.

Boy, was I happy to see all this chat about bracing. It gives us a

lot of views. I look at it this way, some of you on here have had

success with continued correction after going to a brace. Dr.

Sander's recommended it, thus let's see. My wife and I have already

decided, it doesn't come off but three baths per week for the bath

only. In May when we go back, it'll be interesting.

There's alot going on in my head right now as you can imagine, any

and all opinions will be appreciated. Sounds like there will be a

lot of brace chat now that there are multiple kiddos in braces.

Take care,

Jerry

Marissa's Dad