So for the rest of 2008 we had appointments about every 3-4 months. These appointments were pretty much just for observation. Not a whole lot to say about them, just photos.
If you look at the x-ray taken in June of 2008, you can see I have circled a portion of her spine. This is the main area of her issue, in this area her spine is pretty much fused together. Meaning it is pretty much one vertebrae instead of say 5 or 6. We will get into what they want to do to fix it later. As for right now, the doctors just want to monitor her and check up on her every 5-6 months. They say she is to small for any procedure to be done at this time, not enough meat on her bones to cover the rod they would have to put in.
As for the white lines in the photos, that is the degree in which her back is bent. They call it scoliosis for lack of better terms. It is not scoliosis, but it has the same spine curvature. It is a birth defect.
As for what they plan to do at this time(key words are "at this time" in 2008) is to take an adjustable rod and screw it into her hip and hook the other end to her deformed ribs, giving it a little more protection in the open area. The issue with this though is that from the time of her surgery until she has finished growing, every six months, they will need to bring her in and do a minor surgery to extend the rod. I did not like this idea... but what other choice is there. Thank god this idea has since been thrown out(at least I think it has because it has not been brought up for a while), while other ideas have been laid out before us, but more on that later.
Roger
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