I've been reading a gem of a book called, "Straight Talk from the Curvy Girls: Brace Yourself for What you Need to Know". (Love all the puns in the title!) It's full of individual stories by several teen girls who have scoliosis and addresses all their struggles, successes, and worries. It's also full of informational chapters, which are packed with helpful insights.
When I read some of the memoirs, I cry when I think of Sarah's upcoming journey with scoliosis. It's tough to know she has a rough road ahead, but I'm finding comfort and strength reading how so many girls found this experience to end on a positive note- after years of struggles, they learned such confidence and gained a powerful inner strength. I'm hoping Sarah will have similar self-discovery.
I have faith that this journey will help her grow and become the strong person a loving God wants her to be. I know He gives us trials tailored to our needs, and He is trying to help us grow into the beautiful person He sees inside us waiting to be awakened.
I am reminded of the allegory of the fruit tree that was painfully pruned but needed the pruning in order to reach it's full potential. I believe this is why Sarah was given scoliosis as her trial, and I hope our relationship grows to a new level as we walk this path together. Already we've been blessed with many bonding moments as we've researched together, talked about her concerns, and made a game plan for treatment.
I have tried to keep things positive as much as possible. We don't often buy clothing new- thrift stores and garage sales are our routine way to get clothing. However, the body brace makes fashion VERY tricky, and there are some necessary purchases that just can't be done second-hand. So earlier this week we had a Night Out shopping for the mandatory special undershirts that will help protect her skin from abrasion with the brace. It was so fun for her to get to shop at the mall and find colorful seamless tops that will work (Have you ever shopped for seamless shirts? Super hard to do! She can't have any seams under her brace, and requires a shirt with sleeves to help protect her underarm area from getting scraped.) After hunting in several stores for several hours, we finally found what we needed, and she is looking forward to wearing these tops.(Thank goodness J C Penny had exactly what we needed!)
She will be wearing the brace for 22 hours each day. That's such a lifestyle change and the brace puts severe limits what she can do. Clothing is VERY tricky since most clothing just can't be worn with a body brace. We are planning another shopping trip for the day she gets her brace in 2 weeks. I'm hoping that will help make a difficult day have a pleasant ending she can look forward to. (Getting braced for the first time is emotionally draining and sometimes traumatic, and it hurts for the first few days. Tough stuff to face.)
One thing we discovered is that any time she spends in a pool doesn't count against her hours out of the brace. The water supports her body, so Swimming Time = Freedom Time. We also learned how important it is for her to be strengthening her back muscles to help counteract the atrophy that happens with scoliosis (one side of the back grows bigger and the other side atrophies, which makes the spinal curves worse). So we have started a YMCA membership this week.
The kids are so happy to have access to pools and water slides, and we all have been enjoying our time there. Wednesday we were there for 4 hours swimming and exercising. Sarah, Matthew, and I enjoyed swimming laps for about an hour- I was surprised at how much they enjoyed racing me over and over. Yesterday we were there for another 4 hours- there are so many neat group classes to attend that I am reluctant to leave!
We have decided to use a therapy used in Europe for 90 years called the Schroth method. It's hard to find doctors in the United States that practice this, since it's still 'new' to this hemisphere and the common 'treatment' here is to just wait and see what happens, then do spinal surgery to fuse the spine when the curve gets really bad. I don't agree with the Wait and See philosophy, and have extensively researched this method of helping scoliosis curves remain stable. The Schroth Method is customized for each patient's spinal curve and works on strengthening the necessary back muscles to help straighten the curve. It doesn't cure scoliosis (there is no cure), but it can help prevent surgery. It's not a guarantee that she won't need surgery, since some people have curves progress no matter how hard they work to prevent it- it's a genetic aspect of scoliosis that is out of our control. But we're going to do our best to improve her chances of success as much as possible.
The nearest doctor we can find practicing Schroth Physcial Therapy is located several hours away in Houston. That sounds so far, but it's actually a huge blessing- the next-closest Schroth therapist was in Boulder, Colorado! We were very grateful to find this doctor so relatively close to us! Appointments are done daily in an intense 2-week period.So we are working out logistical plans right now trying to decide how to make this work before moving forward. Wish us luck!
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