Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Update

We spent the day in Tucson yesterday because we finally got Connor in to Orthopedic's for his scoliosis consultation. It took weeks for us to get an appointment and when we did, they had to double book us, which means we were pretty much had to be treated like a walk in. It was such a loooonnnnnggggg wait.

The Dr. took a look at Connor's X-rays and told us that it wasn't severe right now. But because of the amount of progression Connor has already for his age, the Doctor said that he was pretty much sitting on the fence about whether or not to be concerned about it at this point. He said that Connor will still be growing for the next 4-5 years and scoliosis depends entirely on growth. It's a growth thing.

Connor's spine forms an S shape with a 35 degree curve on the top and a 24 degree curve on the bottom. The Doc said that they start to get concerned when the angles start to go over 3o degrees. At 45 degrees they start considering surgery and 50 degrees or more they will do surgery.

So, for now all they can do is monitor it. We have to go back every 6 months to determine the rate of progression. The Doc said the best thing to do to try and stop the progression was some kind of physical therapy. He said he could write a referral for it but, also said doing things like Yoga and Pilates would be just as good. Jon has an inversion table and the doc said that would be great for Connor too. Anything to increase his flexibility will help slow down progression and hopefully stop it altogether.

1 comment:

Deana said...

I hope those things will work for Connor. Caroline is in physical therapy now for her foot. Her surgery was on December 9th. It will be quite a while before she will walk normal. Hopefully Connor will be able to have all of the help he needs from this Doctor.