Sage

[Guest guest]

My daughter Sage was diagnosed with Infantile Scoliosis a few moths

ago. She's 17 moths old now and has a 35 degree curve and some

buckling. A recent MRI has ruled out any obvious CNS issues, and

otherwise she seems healthy. Her grandmother is disabled from

scoliosis that went largely untreated, and her mom (my wife) has

scoliosis too which was treated with a brace for 9 years, 23 hours a

day. Sage's older bother and sister (our other 2 children) do not

have any spine issues and are otherwise healthy.

Being fully aware of my wife's history we kept a close eye on our

children's development. When Sage started to sit on her own we

immediately noticed the curve in her spine. Even with my wife's own

experiences with scoliosis, it was devastating. And we, like so many

of you, were left asking 'What should we do?'.

Sage has had a couple of visits with the doctors at the Kluge

Children's Rehab hospital in Charlottesville, VA. Each visit required

xray's and an MRI. They have suggested that we have Sage treated in

Rochester, NY. Although other hospitals/doctors were mentioned as

well. NY is about 12 hours of driving from our home in County,

VA.

I've been a member of this group for a while now and am *amazed* at

the resilience and power of the human spirit. It makes me hopeful

that we too will get through this and that Sage will be OK. I have so

many questions that I want to ask the parents who have much more

experience than us. But I'll try and ask just one question for now...

What I'm interested to know is what to expect in the first few days

after the first cast?

and I have a lot to learn, but not knowing what the casting

process is, or how Sage will react, is what is causing the most

anxiety right now. We'll also be driving back from Rochester the day

after her first cast and something tells me she's not going to like

that one bit.

We'll be in Rochester next week. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Doug