More unpleasent news
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Daughter Number Three has had a problem with her back for the last couple of years. When it wasn’t noticeably improved after seeing a chiropractor for a year, her general practitioner referred her to an orthopedic surgeon.
We knew she had scoliosis, and we knew it was more than just a mild case, but this is the first time I’ve seen her entire back all in one x-ray. That’s an 86-degree curve in the middle of her back. The doc explained that they don’t generally use a back brace for a curvature of more than 40 degrees and she is instead going to have to have surgery so they can put a couple of steel rods on either side of her spine in order to straighten it.
It is my understanding that this is one of the most painful procedures out there because that curve is going to be straightened all at once in a four-hour surgical procedure. This girl is 15 years old and stands 5 foot 5 with her back the way it is. The doctor didn’t correct me when I said it looked like she would gain about 6 inches when her back was straight. That means that my 15-year old daughter is going to be about an in and a half away from looking me in the eye.
Wow.
What confuses me is this: they sent us home with a nice little booklet that talks about scoliosis and kyphosis and the treatments for those conditions. In the beginning of the booklet it has answers to commonly asked questions. The authors state that scoliosis is not caused by poor posture and it’s not caused by carrying a heavy book bag. They also list several other things that don’t cause it (along with the incredibly moronic statement that it isn’t contagious!), but they don’t list one single thing hat DOES cause it. The closest they come is to be politically correct enough to say that cigarette smoke can impair bone healing. Even that isn’t listed as a “cause” of the disease, but just something that might make bones take a little longer to heal.
So, what does cause scoliosis? Bad luck?
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