Curvy Journey-the beginning.

It was about 2 years ago when I noticed that my youngest daughter Maddi had an odd looking right shoulder blade. It was really sticking out more than the left side. We made a Drs appt and the journey began.

The Dr referred us to the IWK Children’s Center in Halifax where we met Dr. El-Hawary. He ordered a bunch of x-rays and took a bunch
of measurements of her spine. He confirmed that she has scoliosis. Now at this point in time, it really didn’t have much of an impact on her life, aside from now being aware that, yes, in fact, her back was not quite like most others. She was a bit self-conscious when wearing low back dresses or bathing suits, but really it didn’t stop her doing life just like all her friends.
We discussed what the future may bring and what the options were at this point.
Seeing as this was just diagnosed he sent us home with a return visit planned for about 6 months down the road. This 6 months would allow us all to see how the progression would be. We talked about the back brace option and also about physio to help slow the progression. Maddi decided that the brace was not something that she felt would be of significant help, and would negatively impact her day to day life much more than the natural progression. The curve up until this point hasn’t been causing her much pain, and isn’t affecting her health in any huge ways. She will get a sharp pain in her left side from time to time, and also has been grinding her teeth while sleeping, has quite strong jaw pain from time to time. We think her misaligned spine may have something to do with the jaw and grinding. Her dentist has taken xrays as well and will follow up with her post-surgery to see how the surgery affects the jaw and teeth issues.

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After the 6 months or so had passed we returned to the IWK and had more x-rays and measurements done. The results showed that the Scoliosis was definitely progressing and that surgery was recommended. Dr. El-Hawary explained a relatively new procedure coming out of Isreal called Apifix ( http://apifix.com/en/) that was proving to be much less invasive and much less restrictive as compared to the typical go to surgery of fusion. Fusion in a nut shell is when a solid rod is implanted next to the spine to stop the spine from curving. For a more detailed explanation follow this link, https://www.webmd.com/back-pain/spinal-fusion-facts#1. The fusion surgery is quite a long procedure and once complete the person will have limited movement of the spine compared to the newer Apifix surgery. The downside to the Apifix is that because it is relatively new, from what I recall the first surgery performed in Canada was 3 years ago and the first ever surgery was 6 years ago, the long term outcomes are still unknown. We discussed as a family and Maddi mad it quite clear she wanted to go with the Apifix system. We fully supported her decision, and down the road is the Apifix proves to be ineffective, she can always have it removed and go with the fusion option.

Due to the fact that this is so new in Canada, her case had to be reviewed by the Apifix board and also by Health Canada. He assured us that he was confident that her case was very suitable for this procedure and he would send the requests off. We waited for the answers to come back as to whether this would be approved. It all seemed to happen quite quickly, the answer was yes and now we all realized that things were actually happening and she was headed for surgery. Maddi was quite excited as Dr El-Hawary explained she would gain bit more height, too which I frowned. LOL Maddi is already taller than me and likes to remind me of that often, so this was great for her!

It also meant that the summer coming up would be a very inactive summer for her compared to most in the past. She is an avid volleyball player and also loves spending time riding Echo, her favorite paint pony. Both of these will not be possible for about 6 months after surgery, but is an ok trade-off in order to have a less curvy back!
We received a call with a date for her surgery which is coming up at the end of March. It has been quite the journey so far and now as we prepare for surgery day, life seems to be going super fast! Throughout this all Maddi has had such a go-getter attitude and is really looking forward to being a part of this new procedure that seems to have very promising outcomes.

Be sure to subscribe to my blog, (link should be to the right),so will get notifications as the journey continues. Next up will be the pre-op appointment day, watch for it soon!

Until next time my friends, be gentle to yourself and look out for others.