Flying anywhere in the month of December Sucks!

... I hope we will never have to fly in the months December/January for a cast.
Weather was so bad that we had our flight canceled then had to get it rescheduled for the Wednesday after *December 15th* but after all the chaos we were on our way to Chicago.

Cadence did really well she went down 10degrees... Hopefully this new doctor is able to get the same response with casting for her.


Chicago from the plane...Poor little munchkin getting sleepy on her sleepy medicine...




...Next cast will be happening March 22nd... Hopefully our numbers are just as good and my little girl will be straight.

September = Fall

So we got our 3rd cast in Chicago... fun fun

Cadence was much better with this entire casting process than she has been the other 2 times.
She kept calling her new cast "Frog Cast" so we decided to go green and then later covered it up with a frog material and she loved it.

Dont really feel like saying much this post because I have a lot of mixed feelings with things. Hopefully the next month(s) will be better for us.

Here are some pics of Miss Tink in her new cast and just being... "Tink" :)

She wanted that nasty IV out...BEFORE: the cast cover...
AFTER: her pretty frog cast :)

It's been awhile...

So now we're on cast #3 in Chicago. This will probably be our last casting done in Chicago due to a lot of changes and it being so far to travel from Florida.

I still continue to have hope with this casting technique and hope it continues to work for my daughter and other children that our in the same situation(s).

I haven't posted pics in awhile of Cadence so here you go...

Her back after cutting 1st cast off...

Not too happy

Now back to her ways running around and getting into trouble...

and what it looks like after we covered it all up :)
I'll post more when we get back from Chicago...

Almost time for Mehta Cast #2

Our past couple months have been great. Cadence is doing so well with her cast. She hasn't had any skin damage and seems to be walking much straighter.

Clothing that fits with her bulky cast and that are Florida friendly have been "fun"... but we're figuring it out more and more as the time is going by and I'll be better prepared when we go back to Chicago in the 1st week of June.

Almost forgot to mention my little Tink had her 2nd birthday and her 1st Easter where she actually knew what to do as far as egg collecting.... Too cute. If you would see how she interacts you would never guess she was crooked or had a bulky cast. She's a firecracker! lol

all dressed up for her 2nd birthday

Easter 2010

Shriner's Circus. Turned out really nice so glad we got free tickets from our temple. :) Gave us something to do while the kids were on Spring Break.

We had some family pictures done last month and they turned out really good.

Cast Cover Up...

Oh forgot to post the pics of Cadence in her new cast cover up :) So here are some of those...

Yep I chose a Tinkerbell cover up... Made sense being I call her "Tink" lol...

Post Casting Update

March 8th we had our 1st appt in Chicago with the doctor that would apply her new cast. The appt went rather well and March 9th she was casted... The cast went well she went from 42 to 0 in cast. I can't wait til the day she has a perfect back without a cast.

I have to admit though I was a complete wreck on our trip to Chicago. For 1 I have a fear for flying and the 2nd reason is Cadence has never been on a plane AND I would be doing it solo for the 1st time... So it was hard and nerve wrecking for me...

It's almost been 2 weeks since the cast was applied and she's managing pretty well.... and this cast actually looks like it's doing the job it needs to do. I'm so blessed to have met some incredible people from this.

Well, here are some pics of our trip and Tink in her new cast :) Enjoy...

Cadence on her 1st plane ride...


Playing in (what's left of) the snow for the 1st time...

Cadence getting ready to go back home...

Our last few months...

I am new to this and thought this would be a great way for family and friends to be updated on Cadence's condition with her progressive infantile scoliosis...

Here is a little rough draft of what we've been through the last few months...


Spring 2009
Shortly after Cadence's 1st Birthday. When I'd give her a bath I noticed her back looked a little different then my 2 older children. I didn't think too much about it until my grandmother started noticing it as well. So, I went with my gut instinct and went and got it checked out.

Sadly to say the 1st Physician I told this to just shrugged it off and acted as if I was a paranoid parent even though insisting I had 2 older children. That wasn't enough for me so I figured since the following week I had an appt with my Chiropractor I figured maybe while she saw me she would take a glance at my daughter to see if she could see what I saw. She did see it and then immediately contacted the Primary Physician that's in the office next door to see if he agreed with what she was seeing. They both agreed she had scoliosis and weren't sure the degree of it.

All I could think of was pictures I had seen of children and adults with scoliosis and being hunched over having difficulties doing normal day to day activities. So as you can imagine I had TONS of things going through my head.

August 2009
I immediately scheduled an appt with her original pediatrician. Who then apologized about the other Physician not checking my daughter out well enough. She saw the curve(@20degrees) and had her immediately get an X-ray and MRI.


a day past...
And got my dreaded phone call confirming my child had scoliosis. So we were then scheduled for the Orthopedic.

almost a month goes by...
We go to see the Orthopedic who confirms what the Pediatrician saw and diagnosed and he proceeds with more X-rays...
... He then tells me that she has *Progressive Infantile Scoliosis and has a curve of 40degrees and it's the shape of an "S". He advised me that she would need to be cast(ed) by a doctor out in Upstate NY whose handled cases like that if not she would need *growth rods placed by the time she's 5.

So my search begins...
I began searching information and doing tons of research on this condition and the outcomes and so on. It became so discouraging because all the information seemed so negative and I was starting to lose hope for my daughter to get straight again. I knew there had to be a doctor that was closer that could give my daughter the *body cast she would need. I called pretty much every Orthopedic doctor in the state of Florida and finally had found one in South Florida that told me he would look at her and could cast her...




That ended up not going as well as he said it would...
To make a long story short... It wasn't properly done and had to cut it off.

again I went with my gut feeling and searched online for support groups or parents that have been down my road because things just didn't seem right and there I came upon a group called "C.A.S.T" which parents have been on the same road as me and/or similar road(s). Thankfully I did meet the Creator of C.A.S.T through a mommy from the site and she put me on the right road of the doctors that do the "Right" cast my daughter needed! "EDF casting with Mehta technique"

So as of now... 2/17/2010

We have an appointment scheduled for Shriner's in Chicago on March 9th for our new "correct" cast!!! I'm so excited about being on the right path for my child and pray she gets straightened all out :D



Some educational links:
http://www.infantilescoliosis.org/
http://www.ednf.org
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=1619

For photo(s) of growing rods and "that" procedure:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1259899-treatment