scoliosis surgery!? pleasee help ;[?

Question

i have two 38 degree curves and they both rotate i dont know how much
first time i was there it was 34(top) and 37 bottom.
About 4 months later i got another x-ray and now they are both 38. Last time my doctor said i would probobly get a brace next time i meet him but now he said that there are studies seeing if they even work!
So no brace :[
I want a night brace at least since i think i have scoliosis since i sleep on one side, and i tested it by switching on the other side and .. well its going to take a long time to explain so whatever. im TRYING to sleep on my back :[

They said im in the gray zone for needing surgery. Well the first doctor said i probably wont then the second person said i prob will.

Im coming back in December which is about 5/6 months after the last time i met them. They planned it 1 year but i was too scared since it would probobly get a lot worse.

Its just the chances are im going to need surgery. Sure, one of my curves only gained 1 degree but i dont think that will happen for BOTH of my curves in 5/6 months, not 3/4 months. They said I have about 6 months-1 year of growth left in me.

So I was searching up info on scoliosis surgery and I am SO scared now. I saw pictures of people after the surgery and its so scary seeing all the wires around them. And the scar is so long!

I know I have like 3/4 months left until I meet them but should I just make it a year? If you had scoliosis surgery, how was it the day you woke up? Was there a tube in your ‘urinal system’ ? What about the back end? If now how did you go..

im sorry for so much but im just so scared!

Answer 1

I have scoliosis too. I wore a brace for almost a year, but not to correct it. I wore it to keep it from getting worse. Then I had surgery last November. It took nine hours and afterward I was exhausted and in a lot of pain. All I wanted to do was sleep, sleep, and sleep some more. But I had to take walks around the hospital.
When I went home I felt terrible and sick, but I got better over a period of weeks. I'm doing very good now, although I might have to have the surgery again due to a curve the doc didn't fix that's getting worse.
I have 2 titanium rods in my back - one on each side of my spine. Sometimes I have sharp pain in my back, so I draw my shoulders back or rub the painful area and it goes away for a while.
Just wanted to tell you my story, so you'll know some of what to expect if you have to have it.
Here are some answers to questions you asked me:
No, I did not have any pain before surgery. Maybe some people would, but I didn't. I wasn't even crooked. It was really weird.
I had the surgery on a Monday, and went home the next Sunday afternoon. So I stayed in the hospital for almost a week.
I don't really remember when I started walking, but I guess it was maybe two or three days after surgery. Pretty soon after.
Before the surgery was started, after they put me to sleep, they put a urinary catheter in me, to drain the urine from my body until I could get up and go to the bathroom by myself, which was just a few days after. So then a nurse took it out. I would always wake up at like 2 in the morning having to go (very weird for me!) and once I had forgotten how to get up so I called a nurse. But unlike many people I'm really good at holding it in so I never had an accident. I knew about the whole catheter thing from way before my surgery from doing research online, so I knew it was coming.
Hope those answers helped!

Answer 2

As you already know i havent had the surgery yet but i'm going to. I found this really good site that you should go to its called spinekids.com and it shows stories about kids just like you who are having sureries and wearing braces. And also if you just type in scoliosis surgery on google you will get a ton of websites. I was wondering how you would go to the bathroom too lol. Well they put something called a catheter in you during the surgery and it collects all your urin then after a few days they take it out. If you have any other questions about the surgery email since i have been doing A LOT of research on it. But don't be scared by the pictures they do look really horrible but its not all that bad. Your not the only one who is scared :( I am horrified lol

Answer 3

http://myscoliosis.net/news.aspx

Go to above web site, scroll down and look at the table comparing success rate of each braces. Night time brace(Providence or Charleston) is mostly used for milder curvatures. Spinecor by far has the best outcome...and it is much more comfortable to wear.

Correction you get in brace, if you do get any, are permanent as they followed through with patients for 2 years after weaning...

Your surgeon is right that they were closing watching studies because there's been some indications that braces don't work at all. After that above study was released (June of this year) the editors of the journals called for doctors to stop asking for ceasing of scoliosis screening because Spinecor seem to be working pretty good and early detection is necessary now.

good luck...

Answer 4

Scoliosis is a progressive disease, which means it keeps getting worse. 80% of cases are turmed idiopathic, which means there is no known cause for the disease. Eventualy you will need surgery.

A steel rod is placed along side your spine. The rod is rotated to reduce the curves. After surgery you will wear a body brace to allow the bone graft to heal rod to spine.