Friday, May 15, 2009

Moderate Scoliosis

Lexie went to the doctor the other day for a physical. The doctor checked her spine and told me he thinks she has Scoliosis and wanted her to get a back X-ray. Today I got a call for the doctor saying that she has Moderate Scoliosis. He wants Lexie to come in and get another X-ray in six months. If her spine worsens then he's going to send her to a specialist and she might be put in a back brace.



When the body is viewed from behind, a normal spine appears straight. (Fig. la) However, when a spine with scoliosis is viewed from behind, a lateral or side-to-side curvature may be apparent. This gives the appearance of leaning to one side and should not be confused with poor posture. Mild Scoliosis (less than 20 degrees). Mild scoliosis is not serious and requires no treatment other than monitoring.
Moderate Scoliosis (between 25 and 70 degrees). It is still not clear whether untreated moderate scoliosis causes significant health problems later on. Some studies have found no difference in either back pain or survival rates in adult untreated patients versus the general population. In one study, adults with moderate scoliosis had normal lung function, although they had difficulty exercising.
Lexie has had back pain and I had no idea she had Scoliosis. I hope Lexie's spine will not worsen and that she will be able to enjoy sports and have no future problems.

3 comments:

families are forever said...

Katie has the same condition. I hope neither of their conditions worsen.

Anonymous said...

The bright side to that though is that wearing a brace for a while can correct it, and lessen chances greatly... If not, our medicine is getting good at things with the back. I work with people with those problems all the time, and kids are pretty easy to fix!!

Sonnet said...

Wow ....life just throws all sorts of things out. I hope everything will go well with it.