What a Sport

So for my avid readers. You will remember a while back at Alex's 12 year check up we found out that her Scoliosis had advanced enough for X-rays. Well those results sent us to the Scotish Right Hospital for Children in Dallas. Let me say that this is the coolest hospital I have ever been in. No child would be scared walking into this building. We were greeted with the friendliest staff. Around every corner was a different toy, statue, aquarium...etc... We all really enjoyed it. Alex and her brothers, Ian and Collin, thought the pirate ship next to our waiting room was really cool.

After we met with the nurse Alex was sent for more X-Rays..lets just say she wasn't happy about sitting in the waiting room in that fashionable robe. But don't worry. As always her daddy is great at distractions. This is a spaceship they played in. To bad Keith and the boys were at the playground. They would have loved this.

So here is what we found out. Alex's Scoliosis is at a 36degree angle. The brace kids from 25-45. They also take into consideration how much more growing a child has to do. Since Alex has grown 4 inches this year we needed to determine how much more growing she has to do. There are several ways to do this. Basically for a girl once you start your period you grow for 2 more years. We aren't there yet so we look at the growth plates in her hips. They measure from 0 (most growing to do) to a 5 (no more growing to do) Alex is a 2..right in the middle. So now the question is to brace or not to brace.

The purpose of the brace is to prevent the spine from curving more than it already is. It will not correct what has already happened. If we Brace and she doesn't grow much more than we have put her in this contraption for nothing. She will have to stay in the brace 20hours a day. She can take it off for sports and to shower. She even has to sleep in it. If we don't Brace and she does grow a bit more then we could be looking at surgery when she is 15 or 16...

Tough call. We have decided to do the Brace. We just don't think she is going to slow down in growing. We will go for a fitting soon. I will keep you all updated. Please pray for Alex. This is going to be so hard. She is ok with getting the brace but I don't think she has any idea how hard it is truly going to be. Not like Jr. High isn't hard enough. We will keep you posted!

Scoliosis (from Greek: skolíōsis meaning "crooked")[1] is a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side, shaped like an "s", and may also be rotated. To adults it can be very painful. It is an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine. On an x-ray, the spine of an individual with a typical scoliosis may look more like an "S" or a "C" than a straight line. It is typically classified as congenital (caused by vertebral anomalies present at birth), idiopathic (sub-classified as infantile, juvenile, adolescent, or adult according to when onset occurred) or as having developed as a secondary symptom of another condition, such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy or due to physical trauma.