It's been a minute. Em has been living life and scoliosis has been on the back burner. Her last surgery was September of 2022. Three and a half years is the longest she has ever gone without a surgery and it has been a blessing! We knew the stretch was coming to an end. At her recent appointment, we were told that the big surgery is coming along with another halo stay. The growth guidance Shilla rods are not guiding anymore. Her spine is doing it's own thing and she is in prime time for growth. The trick to success is timing the surgery right at the end of the most growth because after the surgery those parts of the spine will not grow anymore however if too much crooked growth happens, the lungs and heart get squished and the body starts to compensate for the curve. For examples she is having quite a bit of asthma issues due to her lung space right now as well as some leg length discrepancies because of the effects the spine rotation has on her hips. So it is time. When we go...
On Tuesday we made the trip to St. Louis to visit Dr. Luhmann. We have been making many trips that direction lately because he is also treating Addison for her back injury. Emerson had pictures and x-rays taken first. She has been very interested in the history of x-rays recently because she has been learning about Marie Curie, the inventor of the mobile x-ray. That makes it fun! Then we met with Dr. Luhmann. He told us that her spine is not allowing the rods to do their job and it has decided to bubble to the side. This can be stopped with more permanent rods, however her age and size are not good for that. Once he fuses with permanent rods she would stop growing. He is still considering whether to wait and do one final fusion or more smaller fusions - she has had one so far. He seemed baffled. He plans to take a closer look at her past x-rays and come up with a plan. Right now she is feeling good, so we are going to continue with w...