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Scoliosis surgery/nerve pain

My 16 yo son had surgery on Oct. 1st. I have learned a lot and would be willing to talk with anyone that has questions.

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Permalink Reply by Toalson Family on July 25, 2011 at 6:44pm

My son will be 16 in October. We are going to be seen on August 2nd and 3rd for a consult regarding scoliosis repair. Any advice would be helpful.

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Permalink Reply by Dolly Beck on July 26, 2011 at 11:48am

Good Morning. I will tell you good and bad about my son's experience but everyone is different so just read/digest and make the right decision for you. Your son will "grow", ours did by 4", so check out the head room in your van. We now have to undo the lateral wings on his chair and bend him sideways to get him in and out of the van, which is not comfortable at all for him but we can not afford a new van so we make do. Our son lost what shoulder and hand strength he had after surgery (i.e, he lost the ability to feed himself or scratch his nose) and then come the hand contractions to deal with. Post-op nerve damage/pain; Our surgeon was an arrogant ass (i was in the medical field and have worked for many, for some reason surgeons have horrible patient skills and bedside manner) but we had no choice he was the only doctor at Shriner's that did this surgery. When my son had horrible pain in his right leg after surgery he just shrugged and said this was a hard surgery and tough it out...so we did for 6 weeks. My son did not sleep more than 1 hour at a time. Constant heat packs and massage did not help. I was a basket case and desperate for help but got non from the hospital. We finally tried acupuncture and I can not say enough how it saved my son. It took 8 visits and he noticed it helping after the 3rd. Be careful of pneumonia. My son got a cold 5 months post surgery and it quickly got bad, really took me off guard, so be diligent. Recovering from that was in some ways worse than surgery. Cosmetically, he looks great, so much taller and thinner which he likes. He has not been sick, even a cold, since pneumonia 2 1/2 years ago.

I hope I have not scared you too badly, just wanted you to know things can go awry sometimes...no one told us any of these things pre surgery. Let me know if I can answer any more questions.