Wow, now it's April. Olivia had her six month visit with Dr. Mendelow and her x-rays showed no change. It's a good thing that her curves have not progressed, but it would have been nice to see even a tiny change. Dr. Mendelow was not discouraged, as her growth has been so minimal and he does not foresee her growing much more.
Before we left his office, he told me about a Scoliosis Rehab Clinic in Wisconsin which he thought may be a benefit to her. He gave me some literature and encouraged me to check it out. From what I understand, this is not a type of therapy that a surgeon will normally recommend, so I feel very blessed that he has shared this with us and is on the consertative side.
I went home and immediately got on the Internet. I was intrigued, sent them an email and researched the program.
I received a response from the clinic the next day. They were totally encouraged that our orthopedic suggested them, as I was told most doctors are not too keen on this type of physical therapy. They were really impressed. They told me about the program and sent me a lot of information, including a long list of references.
I can not begin to tell you how many wonderful people I have been in touch with and all of the valuable information I have received.
We checked with our insurance company and they will cover a good part of the therapy.
Reservations are made. We will be there for two weeks, the middle of June. We will hit the road on Sunday, June 14th for a ten hour drive up to Stevens Point, WI. I'm glad it will be summer!
The program is for two full weeks, Monday through Friday, with two hours of therapy in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. They will send us home with a video, tons of information and a plan for continued exercise everyday at home, for thirty minutes, five days a week. It is going to take a commitment, but it is well worth it. We are encouraged.
As I'm typing this, I realized that I never posted any stats of Olivia's scoliosis. I'm too tired to remember all the numbers now, but will post them on my next post, hopefully sometime this weekend.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
October 9, 2008 - A busy day!
Olivia was fit for her brace at 8:00 a.m. It was a fascinating process. Ron is extremely experienced in what he does. I was impressed.
He wrapped her in what looked like huge ace bandages, and then taped on top of that. He took tons of measurements, then snipped the "form" off of her. Boy this girl is skinny!
From this form, he was going to make the brace out of fiberglass (I believe) and some sort of hard foam type material on the inside. He showed Olivia a chart of many different colors and patterns and she could choose what she wanted the outside to look like. She chose an orange and yellow pattern to match her bedroom.
That afternoon we went out to lunch and then at 4:30 she had her MRI. It was actually a series of three and took nearly two hours. She was a trooper and did great.
Nothing was found on the MRI that would be a cause of the scoliosis
He wrapped her in what looked like huge ace bandages, and then taped on top of that. He took tons of measurements, then snipped the "form" off of her. Boy this girl is skinny!
From this form, he was going to make the brace out of fiberglass (I believe) and some sort of hard foam type material on the inside. He showed Olivia a chart of many different colors and patterns and she could choose what she wanted the outside to look like. She chose an orange and yellow pattern to match her bedroom.
That afternoon we went out to lunch and then at 4:30 she had her MRI. It was actually a series of three and took nearly two hours. She was a trooper and did great.
Nothing was found on the MRI that would be a cause of the scoliosis
Our first orthopedic visit
We had to wait for several weeks before he could see us, and in late September we had our first visit with Dr. Mendelow. He spent a lot of time with us explaining what scoliosis is, answering our questions and examining Olivia. He did a complete set of x-rays.
He determined that Olivia had a double curvature, which were pretty severe. We also met with Ron, who is an orthosist for Wright and Filippis and works closely with Dr. Mendelow. They both agreed that Olivia needed to be braced, and the Providence Brace was recommended. The Providence Brace is worn only at night and is custom molded to the body. We set up an appointment with Ron to have her fit for the brace.
Dr. Mendelow also requested that we have an MRI done, just to be sure there were not any underlying conditions causing the scoliosis.
He determined that Olivia had a double curvature, which were pretty severe. We also met with Ron, who is an orthosist for Wright and Filippis and works closely with Dr. Mendelow. They both agreed that Olivia needed to be braced, and the Providence Brace was recommended. The Providence Brace is worn only at night and is custom molded to the body. We set up an appointment with Ron to have her fit for the brace.
Dr. Mendelow also requested that we have an MRI done, just to be sure there were not any underlying conditions causing the scoliosis.
Diagnosis -
In August of 2008, Olivia went for a sports physical at her school as she was going to try out for Volleyball. At that time, the doctor informed us that she had scoliosis and informed us to see an orthopedic.
I took her to her pediatrician, who confirmed what the other doctor said. Upon reviewing her records, he discovered that from January 2009 (when she was in for a well visit) to August, 2009 she had grown over 5". No wonder her pants kept getting so short! In January of '08, there was no abnormal curve to her spine, which led him to believe this rapid growth spurt was a result of the scoliosis.
He referred me to Dr. Michael Mendelow who is a pediatric orthopedic.
I took her to her pediatrician, who confirmed what the other doctor said. Upon reviewing her records, he discovered that from January 2009 (when she was in for a well visit) to August, 2009 she had grown over 5". No wonder her pants kept getting so short! In January of '08, there was no abnormal curve to her spine, which led him to believe this rapid growth spurt was a result of the scoliosis.
He referred me to Dr. Michael Mendelow who is a pediatric orthopedic.
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