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