The Ponies are Back!

Remember my "It's Pony Mayhem" post from a while back?  Well, the My Little Ponies are back for their third trip around our family!  (Or fourth, if you count MY personal Pony Mayhem from the 80s!)  This time though, in addition to watching the now older crew of Ponies, Savanna is now into the The New Generation, and Sunny Starscout is her hero!  Stay tuned for some Halloween photos below, and you'll see just what Sunny looks like. 😀

It's been six months since Savanna's last trip to Shriners, so I'll give some brief activity updates before talking about the Shriners visit.

Latest Adventures:

June Beach Trip

July 4th - First time watching fire works live!

She's in awe...

Looks like we have two kitties now!

Selfie Time

Summer camping with friends

Violin camp teaching assistant

Trip to Majestic Meadows Alpaca Farm

More camping and lake time

Hanging with buddies

1st day of school for this 4th grader...

and 1st grader!

More selfie time

Apple picking with cousins

School photos!

Pumpkin Time

Fun but chilly hike in the mountains

Halloween!  She's Sunny Starscout.

Neighborhood Halloween Hayride

Hooray for science!  First covid vaccine in the books!  (By the time you read this, they will both have gotten their second shots too, thank goodness!)

Hiking with buddies

Visit to Van Gogh Alive Exhibit

Thanksgiving Day/Weekend

#optoutside

Story time for Moses

Shriners Visit on 12/08/2021:

This was a great visit, complete with a great x-ray!  Look at those numbers... 6.76 degrees (vs. the 52 degrees where she started)!  We will take it!  Dr. Pete always says the numbers are plus or minus 5 degrees, but still, this girl is looking good!  

We talked about if we should continue to stay the course or maybe make any changes.  Honestly, the same things apply now that have applied every time over our last several visits: the brace seems to be helping (and we know it is holding her curve in check at a minimum or even helping it improve), and she is fine with wearing the brace at night.  So, we will proceed on as before!  I feel like we are in this honeymoon phase of the brace wearing, where we have the flexibility for her to not have to wear it EVERY night, like at a sleepover or when camping, and the scoliosis will not magically worsen over those one or few nights.  It's really nice.

I did ask Dr. Pete about the fact that it seems Savanna may have some lordosis now.  Lordosis is the opposite of kyphosis, which is the classic "hunchback" kind of look.  Lordosis is where her spine is a bit more extended/over-extended as opposed to a typical spine.  See the image below.

Taken from https://skoliosis.my/scoliosis-cause/lordosis/

Dr. Pete said he does see a bit of lordosis in her spine, but it was not too excessive.  He said it makes sense that she has some lordosis, because as the brace holds her side-to-side curve in check, it is also holding her a bit extended.  We tend to think of scoliosis (and bracing) in a two-dimensional plane, but it is really a three-dimensional issue that can be accompanied by rotation and extension.  I think we will continue to watch this too, but he obviously was not as worried about it since he wants her to continue with the brace for now.

As Dr. Pete reiterated, "We have won the war.  She should (hopefully) never need surgery."  We will continue to watch her through adolescence, probably while she continues to wear the brace, but one day we will be done with bracing.  

When we were done with her Dr. Pete appointment, we headed to Santa's Workshop!  Shriners is the best!  Savanna reminded Santa that she wanted a Sing & Skate Sunny Starscout, and guess what they found in the back of the workshop??  A Sing & Skate Sunny Starscout!  I can't believe Santa had that on hand for her.  What a treat!  (I guess Santa also forgot that he had already put one in my closet at home, but hey, I'll be able to return it!)  😉

We will go back to see Dr. Pete again in 6 months!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!