Our first visit

We finally got an appointment to visit Shriner's Hospital on February 6th to meet Dr. Pete Stasikelis and his team. I have heard so many AWESOME things about him and I couldn't wait to meet him and talk to him about this problem.

We made our way back to the waiting room, and everything happened so quickly. First the physician's assistant came in to speak with us for a little bit about Camden's spine, to answer our questions and to take notes. He evaluated Camden and how he interacts with us. He was hoping that Camden's scoliosis would be "resolving" which means to curve would eventually straighten as he grew. Well I got very happy about that. It was a releif to know that he was so positive about this. But still in the back of my head I was thinking that it wasn't right.

After evaluation, Dr. Pete came in to evaluate Camden also. He said that most likely this was Progressive Infantile Scoliosis because of his RVAD(rib verticle angle) and of course my heart sunk to my stomach. I thought that I was going to puke after hearing that. He ordered Camden to have an MRI done so that we could be at ease that is was nothing to do with his spinal cord, and that he didn't have a teathered spine. IF that was the case they would have to treat that before we could take another step further.

Dr. Pete had recommended having Camden "casted" (there is not ONE person that I have spoken to who knows what exactly this is). He explained that this would be a hard plaster cast that would be placed around his torso, he would be put to sleep. The cast would be placed every 2 months because of his rapid growth and this could go on for a year to 18 months just depending on how much his spine would be tricked to grow in a different way and until it was completely straight at a 0 degree angle. This is a very positive pocedure from what I have heard from so many other mom's. It is very effective and is almost 100% curable.  Of course there was a lump in my throat after this was given an option. I was nauseated I would have never thought! This still wasn't 100% yet because we still weren't sure if this would cure itself or not. We scheduled to have the MRI done on February 27th, and I was NOT looking forward to this at all.

This is a picture of Camden's back while he is sitting up unsupported at 5  months old. Notice he leans more to the left and his RVAD (rib verticle angle) is out more on that side.