Guthrie - intro & day care question

[Guest guest]

Hello -

My husband, Gregor, and I have been members of C.A.S.T. for just a few weeks now. Our 2-year old son, Guthrie, was just diagnosed with progressive infantile scoliosis with a 60-degree Cobb angle. Guthrie seems otherwise to be thriving developmentally and physically, but he is having an MRI on 11/25 to rule out other complications. If the MRI is negative, our plan is to begin serial casting with Dr. Rubery in Rochester the week after Thanksgiving.

Briefly, here is our journey so far -- Our pediatrician first noticed Guthrie’s scoliosis a few weeks ago at Guthrie’s regular 2-year well visit (looking back at snapshots, though, I think Guthrie’s scoliosis has been around for a while now). We live in the NYC area, and we quickly went to see Dr. Roye at Columbia Presbyterian Children’s Hospital in NYC. Dr. B. Roye ordered x-rays and the pending MRI, and advised that we begin serial casting with his colleague Dr. Vitale. Dr. Roye told us that their department was awaiting their AMIL frame, but he was not really sure when it would arrive — hopefully any day now.

We left Columbia Presby. with mixed feelings — happy to hear that they would do serial casting on Guthrie, but not happy to hear that they didn’t yet have the AMIL frame and that we weren’t sure what, if any, experience Dr. Vitale had with performing Mehta casting. We reached out to Hyatt, who generously offered to talk on the phone (thank you !). After our conversation, we overnighted a package introducing Guthrie to Dr. Rubery and Dr. at Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester. We sent a letter, pictures of him, and a CD-ROM of his latest x-rays.

The morning after receiving the package, Dr. Rubery called us – at 7:45 am! He said the onset is very aggressive, even for progressive infantile scoliosis, and that he could see us on the soonest Wednesday and then cast on Thursday. But since this Thursday is Thanksgiving, he didn’t think he could get anyone in to help him (a doctor who would cast our son on Thanksgiving, wow!). So, if Guthrie’s MRI is clear, we will proceed to Rochester for treatment with Dr. Rubery next week.

I’m sure I will have many many questions along the way, but I wanted to ask the group for any advice regarding having a child in day care with a cast. I understand that diapering is something that Guthrie’s day care providers will have to treat with some special care, and is there anything else that anyone can share? I want to keep Guthrie’s day care providers informed and educated about his cast, without intimidating them or over-burdening them with unnecessary information and procedures. I know I have so much to learn, so please forgive me if I’m coming across as ignorant or naïve. Like, am I just crazy to think that Guthrie can return to 2-day/week day care with a cast? I guess I’m hoping that Guthrie will lead a pretty normal active life in his cast.

Thank you for your help, and for welcoming our family into this community,

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