An Even Better Best X-ray Ever!

The last blog post was entitled "Best X-Ray Ever."  That's a hard blog post/doctor's visit to beat!  However, we did it!  More on that soon, but first, we need to highlight some adventures from over the last 6 months.

Adventures:

Christmas/December 2018

Santa was at the Nature Center!

Nature Center Fun

Family Movie Night

Fun in the Snow!

Gingerbread House

Christmas Eve with Buddies

Matching Jammies

Visit to See Family After Christmas

January 2019

Hiking at DuPont State Forest

Photo by Emerson

 Hiking

February 2019

More Nature Center

Someone turned 4!

Mighty Pups Cake

March 2019

Ahh!!!  It's a shark!

Doing a gemstone dig

Welcome to our new cat Maceo (MAY-see-oh)!

Donating some of her allowance to the Humane Society where we got Maceo

Swim Lessons

Reading with Pops

Snuggling with Pops

Hiking with Pops

April 2019

Phases of the Moon - Oreo Style

The First Tooth is finally OUT!!

Getting the Garden Ready

Easter Weekend Trip to the Beach

Cutie

Egg Hunting Time!

Easter prezzies!

Yep, another visit to the Nature Center. :-)  Guess we love that place!

Field Trip to Mr. G's Farm

Savanna's First Grade Class

Earth Day Posters

May 2019

Paw Patrol Live!

Visit to Shriner's:

It's been about 6 months since Savanna's last check up.  Her x-ray at the last check up showed a curve of between 10-14 degrees.  (The 14 degrees was the number from the PA that had tried to measure the most "generous" number she could, therefore likely over-estimating the number a bit.  Dr. Pete indicated about 10 degrees.)  So, the best we could hope for is continued improvement, but I would also be just fine with maintaining these great low numbers.  Please, no increase in numbers!

Well... low and behold, that little curve of hers is continuing to improve!!  It's so amazing!  Her doctor indicated that possibly she's at about 8 degrees now, but at this point it is really difficult to measure because it is so small.  What phenomenal news to hear!

Dr. Pete said that it's "game over" now with this process!  We won!  He also said that because she did not have to have growing rods at a really young age, thankfully, she should continue to have a really great quality of life going forward.  Even if the curve progresses again to such a point that she would need growing rods in adolescence (which we would not even talk about unless she got into the 50-60 degree range again), her chances for a good quality of life would be much higher than if she had to have rods very young.  Anyway, hopefully we will not need to have a discussion about rods for her in the future.

So, what now?  Well, Dr. Pete indicated that we are sort of in some un-chartered territory now.  Basically, there has been some published research about infantile scoliosis for when the kids are very young, but there isn't much yet regarding kids around Savanna's age who have completed casting and then gone to bracing and have had further success.  Dr. Pete wasn't even sure that the brace was wholly responsible for this continued improvement.  Maybe it's the whole casting process she went through, and now her body is growing straight...  We discussed if she should continue to wear the brace (at night only).  Personally, I have read many stories lately of kids whose curves have come back after they stopped wearing a brace, so then the kids had to go back into a brace, and I am fearful of that happening for Savanna.  Therefore, Dr. Pete and I decided that since she tolerates the brace so well, it still fits her, she has continued to improve while in it, and it really does not affect her quality of life; she will continue to wear it at night for the foreseeable future.  

Savanna asked me the other day how long she will have to keep wearing the brace, and how long until her spine is straight.  I told her that thankfully she only has to wear the brace at night, and it doesn't seem to bother her much anyway (thankfully!), and she agreed.  Therefore, I told her that I anticipate her having to wear it at night for a long time to come yet.  Even if she is all of a sudden at 0 for her curve and "cured", I will still want her to wear it for a while to come.  However, we will reassess at every check up and also if she outgrows her current brace.

 Dr. Pete and Savanna

Mama and Savanna

No visit to Shriner's would be complete without a visit with Savanna's scoli buddy Lyla from Florida.  It's awesome that we can plan the girls' check ups for the same dates.

Hanging out at the Park

Giggle girls

Pretending to sleep

Next Check-Up:  Savanna will have another check-up in 6 months.

Thank you for all of the love and support you all shower over our family, and Savanna in particular.  I firmly believe that everyone's love, support, energy, blessings, prayers, good energy, good vibes, and whatever other thoughts you send to us have helped her on this journey!  :-)

Have a great summer!

~ LM ~