Today is a Day for Celebration!

Almost five years ago, during my daughter's seven-year-old well-visit, the pediatrician through knitted brows looked at her back, her stance, her shoulders, and her walk. He thought it would be a good idea for her to see an orthopedist and officially be evaluated for scoliosis. 

This led to years of doctors appointments 50 miles away from our house. These appointments take all day causing her to miss school multiple times a year. (Good thing she doesn't give a flip about perfect attendance.) After some initial monitoring followed by fast and furious growth spurts, the doctor then recommended she start wearing a brace at night. The nurses, doctors, and technicians try to make all of this as exciting and kid-friendly as possible, letting the kids pick the pattern that will adorn their brace and being kind and light-hearted along the way.

But, in reality, the brace is hard and constricting. It is specially designed and created to combat her specific backwards-S curve, one swerving to the right causing her right shoulder to bump out, the other in her lumbar, imperceptible to the eye yet causes her lower back pain. She chose an extremely patriotic American flag pattern to wrap her brace and therefore her torso every night for the last almost two years. It has two thick straps that you have to pull as tight as you can and then velcro into place. For awhile, she needed help with this, but then she became strong enough to do it on her own.

Those first few nights in the brace were rough and more than a few tears were shed by my brave girl and her scared mom. But, just as the doctor said she would, she got used to it, and wearing the brace became just a normal part of her life. It came on vacations with us and over to Grandma's when she spent the night. More than once, the straps and brackets and velcro had to be replaced. A few times the brace itself had to be shaved and modified to accommodate her changing body. Embedded in the hard plastic is a heat-sensing monitor that tracks the hours worn every day. Her goal from the beginning was to wear it 10 hours a day, and every doctor's appointment yielded a new bar graph illustrating how many hours she'd worn the brace every day from her last appointment to the current one.

It has been nearly two years since she got her brace followed by dozens of x-rays in her brace and out of her brace. Today, she had yet another follow-up appointment to check her curves. In the fall, we were told that if this appointment showed little to no change in her curves, she wouldn't have to wear the brace any longer.

My husband and I have an arrangement in which, most of the time, he takes the kids to their doctors appointments. We've come to this agreement for a few reasons but mainly because I have extreme anxiety around taking my kids to the doctor and he generally has zero anxiety about this or anything else in life, so he is the calmer parent in these situations. I reminded them both before leaving this morning not to forget her brace and to call or text me as soon as they knew the results.

I went about my day, trying hard not to stalk the clock and wonder what she was doing and if they knew anything yet. I tried hard to not think about what the next steps would be had her curves progressed - a different brace to be worn all day during school while still wearing the night brace at night. If two braces worn 22 hours a day didn't stop the curves from curving, the next step after that is surgery. The day dragged on. Finally, around 2 o'clock, I got a lone text from my daughter reading, "No more brace for me!"

After work, I ran by our Walmart and bought a cake, ice cream, Hooray banner, congratulatory card, flowers, party hats, sparklers, and noise poppers. Today was a day for celebration, and tonight we were going to have a party.

As the elderly clerk ran my things through the check-out she said, "Looks like someone's havin' a birthday party." I couldn't help myself and told her all about my daughter's triumph. She kindly celebrated with me and wished us fun with our party.

We enjoyed our evening of Chik-fil-A, family time, and celebration. I am so proud of her for diligently wearing that brace almost every night with very few complaints. I am so relieved that this early intervention worked; Gratitude and a deep exhale fill my soul.

Today is a day for celebration!



Comments

  1. I'm downright giddy for your girl and her momma! 🎉 Thanks for writing about the experience in a way honors your own personal journey and accentuates your daughter's tenacity. Your quip about perfect attendance and the gentle way you explained why the 50-mile trip to the doctor is a daddy/daughter date gave us all a glimpse into why today is a day for celebration.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts