Surgery plans - the long view

One of my strong memories from childhood is lining up every few months beside Mom and leaning forward as her fingers carefully massaged our spines and checked for good alignment in the vertebrae. Mom was touched by scoliosis as a child and spent a year of high school in a full body cast. Throughout my childhood, she was vigilant in making sure that her children did not have to deal with the same disease.

After staying dormant for most of her adult life, Mom's scoliosis is back. She has researched treatments exhaustively and has logged countless hours in non-surgical alternatives (pilates, stretching, physical therapy, etc.). A few weeks ago, she met with a well-known specialist in Atlanta who does corrective surgery for scoliosis patients like Mom. After a close examination of her medical history and current X-rays, he made it clear that if left untreated, the scoliosis will continue to cause problems for her — namely, chronic pain and breathing difficulties. She has already lost two inches of height in the past year as her spine has compressed more and more.

Major surgery is scheduled for December 18 here in Atlanta. The surgery takes about 10 hours and involves placing composite rods in the spine and then doing a bone graft from the pelvis to solidify the repair. Patients are in the hospital for ten days and then have months of rehab. The surgery is not going to be fun. At the same time, I know that Mom is looking forward to regaining her lost height, and picking up a good medical reason for elegant posture.

This week we found out some great news. After going through a battery of tests at Emory, Mom was told by her doctor that they can complete the surgery in one pass instead of breaking it into two surgeries, several days apart. This was a huge answer to prayer. It will mean less expense, a shorter hospital stay, less potential for complications, etc.

We look forward to seeing Mom stand tall again.

posted by Carissa