Thank You Thursday

I can't believe it has been a WHOLE week since my last post! I've been really busy with Easter, church work and Preston's Baby Shower (I'll post more later). Back to Thank You Thursday.

Today I'm thankful for the blessings of Modern Medicine and wonderful doctors.

Hope was diagnosed with Scoliosis in February. She didn't "pass" her 6th grade screening test at school last year but her case was very mild. She recently had a major growing spurt and things took a turn for the worst. We started with our Family Doctor who sent us for X-rays. When she got the results she sent us to an Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Davino and he did MORE X-rays.

Here are scans of a couple of the X-rays he took February 16th.

Her curvature was 28 ° and Dr. Davino felt strongly that because Hope is still growing she should wear a back brace to help her spine straighten out as she grows.

The next step was a visit to Dr. Steve at Orthotic & Prosthetic Associates. He made a cast and sent that along with a CD of her X-Rays to Boston to have a brace made.

This is what her brace looks like:Front

Side

Back

It is not the most accommodating attire if you know what I mean. Hope has had such a great attitude. She is to wear it 24/7 with the exception of athletics. She has managed to adapt her wardrobe so that most people don't even realize she has it on. Some kid at school was joking around and punched her in the stomach. She said(as she was chuckling) he'll never do that again! She has lots of funny stories of things that have happened. I think she is so amazing to have a sense of humor and I admire her resilient spirit and courage. She has been wearing it faithfully (through pain and ridicule) for 4 weeks now.

This week I took Hope back to Dr. Davino so he could do a follow up X-Ray. She did her X-Rays and we were waiting in the little room for the results. I was hoping with all my heart he would see a difference so Hope could have some gratification from all of her pain and dedication. When Dr. Davino entered the room he was smiling from ear to ear and practically jumping up and down. He was thrilled with the results. The lower part of her spine was at 0°(perfect) and the upper spine was down to 13°! He said he had NEVER seen this happen (in such a short time frame) in all of his years of practice.

Although that brace is really uncomfortable and a big time wardrobe challenge, Hope won't mind wearing it for 12 - 18 months knowing what wearing it is accomplishing!