Classic Rant #204 (March 1, 2010): Scoliosis My Eye!

My son has recently been diagnosed with scoliosis.

To explain exactly what scoliosis is, I turned to Wikipedia. It's a source I usually don't quote from, but in this case, I think it pretty much explains it in a simple enough way so even I can understand it.

Here is the definition:

"Scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side. Although, it is a complex three-dimensional deformity, on an x-ray, viewed from the rear, the spine of an individual with a typical scoliosis may look more like an "S" or a "C" than a straight line. It is typically classified as either congenital (caused by vertebral anomalies present at birth), idiopathic (cause unknown, sub-classified as infantile, juvenile, adolescent, or adult according to when onset occurred) or neuromuscular (having developed as a secondary symptom of another condition, such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy or physical trauma). This condition affects approximately 7 million people in the United States."

My wife and I took our son for a general checkup at his regular doctor, and the doctor said that she felt he might need to be checked out by a specialist. He was, and the diagnosis was that he had this abnormality. We found out that children are normally diagnosed at the onset of puberty with this maladay, and that this is the time that it can be most easily corrected.

Today, myself, my wife and our son have an appointment with a concern that is going to construct a brace for my son to wear to help correct this condition. We don't know yet how long or often he will have to wear this contraption, but my son is taking this whole thing like the pro he is. I think my wife and I are more worried about this than he is.

Our son loves to play sports, and played Little League baseball until right before his 13th birthday. He also loves to play basketball, and you would never know he had this thing if you looked at him.

He was never very athletic, but he loves to play sports. He goes to the gym a few days a week, and he is fairly active (although like most kids today, he sits in front of the computer way too much).

But he has it, and we have to take the bull by the horns and deal with it--and attack it. We don't want him to have back and movement problems later on, so we have to deal with it now.

Sure, my wife and I are nervous about this. If he has to wear the brace during the day, it might help him health-wise, but he may be open to ridicule from his peers in school. Going into high school, he doesn't need such a target placed on him.

He is a shy kid to begin with, and any extra attention drawn to him in a negative way might put him more into his shell than he already is.

Add to that that he is a special ed student, and you can see why my wife and I are concerned.

We will find out soon the schedule for this thing. Once we find that out, I think my wife and I will be OK.

My son, well he is our Rock of Gibraltar, he really is. He is taking the whole thing in stride.

Scoliosis is certainly not the end of the world. There are far worse things to have.

But like many parents with children having this malady, we want to tackle it now, so our son doesn't suffer later on.

I think our son will do fine.

My wife and I ... I think we will get courage just from watching how well our son does battling this thing.