Our meeting!

Today, Beth and Rhonda from the Scoliosis Rehab Center came to Michigan to meet with Dr. Mendelow and his staff. They spent the day with him at his practice.

Later in the afternoon, Bob, Olivia and I met with Beth personally. She shared information with us about the clinic and what we can expect during our visit there. After the time with Beth, we went down to a conference room where Dr. Mendelow, Beth, Rhonda and Joseph P. O'Brien, who is the president of the National Scoliosis Foundation met with us and several other of Dr. Mendelow's patients and their parents.

They talked about the Schroth method of PT. Beth gave everyone a wonderful overview of Schroth and of the center in Stevens Point. A Power Point presentation was planned, however the projector was MIA. She pulled it off like a pro!

We were there for about an hour and left really encouraged! I feel that we are headed in the right direction.

RSC or Not?

At the suggestion of The Scoliosis Rehab Center, I contacted Grant Wood Ortho to see if they felt that Olivia would benefit with a RSC brace. I had previously asked Dr. Mendelow about it and he did not seem to feel that at this point it would be of any benefit to her. He told me that it would not hurt to talk to them about it, to see what they felt. He feels that the Providence Brace which she is currently in and that her Risser is a 4 switching to a RSC brace would most likely not make a difference at this point.


I sent Grant Wood her pathology reports, and this is what he had to say:

"I agree with what your doctor has stated thus far. A RSC brace might help, but normally it is not indicated at this age. However I have seen pts in the brace with Risser 4 and 5, some with ok results and some not making any change, therefore it would be up to your daughter and you to decide if it's worth the effort. "

So, that being said, we are going to stick with the Providence Brace. Dr. Mendelow feels that she will be out of it within six months.

I'm glad I contacted them. It gives me a peace of mind.

I must say, I am really impressed by their integrity. A part of me was expecting them to try to sell their product to us. I guess I'm somewhat of a skeptic.

Off in the mail today went all our registration papers for the Rehab Center. Time is going fast.



I also found out some great news! One of the therapists from the Scoliosis Rehab Center will be coming to Michigan the end of this month to meet Dr. Mendelow. This is very exciting, as most orthopedics are not very open to this type of therapy. Dr. Mendelow mentioned to me that he would like to meet with them one day and would welcome a visit if they were interested. I shared this information with Jan at the center and....well, it's been arranged.



I am really hoping that there will be time for me to meet "the therapist" (I don't know who is coming), when she's here. I will be informed of the specifics once the agenda is set, and we will see if arrangements can be made for a time to meet.



Once I have more information, it will be posted!

Not much is going on now.....

.....until we leave on June 14th, there really won't be much to post about. Our plans are all set for our trip to Stevens Point, WI.

Olivia and I will drive up there on Sunday, June 14th. It's about a ten hour drive. She will begin therapy on Monday morning. Bob will fly up to Madison on Saturday, June 20th. Madison is two hours south of Stevens Point. He will stay the rest of the time with us and we will drive home together. We actually found a very reasonable one way flight out of Flint. We are saving hundreds of dollars, literally, by him flying out of Flint instead of Detroit. The Flint airport is only about 15 miles miles further from our home than Detroit is. It pays to keep on searching!

I mailed off all the requested materials to the Rehab Center today. They're mailing me a packet to complete and then we should be all set with the paper work.

June 14th will be here before we know it. Why is it that January and February seem to take forever to end and the spring and summer months are gone before we know it?

Brace Pictures

Here is what Olivia looks like in her brace. Note that she just got done eating pizza and drinking coke so she could barely get into it! She only wears it to bed, so she puts it on laying down and pulls it so tight that she can barely walk or even stand up in it.

This brace is so tiny, I don't even think I could get it around my thigh!

Of course, I never tried!!!

Stats

Okay, here you have an image of the Spinal Column. As you can see it is straight, and the alignment is down the center of the back. This is what a "normal" back should look like.

Here are stats of Olivia's scoliosis:

Thoracic Curve Degree:

T5 - 11 = 31%

T11 - L4 = 44%

Lumbar Curve Degree:

L4 - S1 = 27%

Alignment:

4.5 to 6 cm off center

The positive thing is that her Risser Sign is a 4. This is scored from 0 - 5, meaning that a zero would be a patient hasn't begun reaching skeletal maturity and has a lot of grown left, with a five meaning that bone growth is complete. So, seeing that she does not have much growth left, hopefully we will not see any increase in curvature.

She is currently standing at approximately 5'5" tall and weighs a whole 94 lbs.