Emma herself has already hit the super big-leagues at age 10, just finishing a several day starring role in “Les Miserables” at the RBC Center. She actually timed her scoliosis surgery to fall just after this series of performances, so she could recover in time to try out for her next show — The Little Mermaid!! (I wonder which part she will be going for there? — hmmm)Well, I was very surprised to learn from one of my executive patients from downtown Raleigh that I actually got a “shout out” in the Les Miserables program, which is shown below…
Super cool. Emma did great with her surgery and spent a few nights at the WakeMed Raleigh Children’s Hospital, where she received awesome care. She came in crooked and went home quite straight without bracing for her Early Onset Scoliosis (EOS) which was rapidly progressing. We were able to fix her scoliosis with one definitive surgery rather than a series of surgery with growing rods or Shilla technique, and got a very nice correction. She is showing you with her hand in picture at top how straight she is now!
Get well soon Emma and say “Hi” to Lloyd the dog and Rachel the Rabbit for me.
In other news: did minimally invasive microsurgical discectomy on Tara, a vet student from southern Pennsylvania, and was able to get her transported back and forth Thursday, surgery Friday, home visiting her folks in Raleigh Saturday, and flown home early Sunday morning pain free. She was psyched! What is interesting is I just did microdiscectomy on her little brother (not really little, just younger, who is a varsity lacrosse player from NJ just about 2 months ago, and she got disc herniation at same level. Their dad, an executive in Raleigh, NC had similar problem I fixed a few months ago as well! Must be some bad disc genes there somewhere. Now everyone is good to go and dad and Tara are now psyched about flying!
Just rolled out Epic at our Duke Raleigh Hospital today, and I did a big 75 degree scoliosis on a lady with history of unfortunate brain injury as a teenager, leading to spasticity and severe progressive deformity. Surgery went well. Epic was a bit of a challenge but overall went well with lots of helpful hands on site. In long run it will be a good thing.
Time for sleep and Scheuermann’s kyphosis and spondylolisthesis surgery tomorrow. Hopefully roads won’t be to icy in AM.
Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
(Emma and her parents gave permission for me to share her photo with us and her program)