Sabrina is one of our college-age athlete swimmer who had scoliosis surgery with us, and is in training now down in Florida. Her mom sent us this cool update with her doing a back bend after her adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) surgery! She is also swimming competitively. Check it out at bottom of this blog.
Today was my first day back to work after a nice almost 2 week break. I went back to work this past Friday and saw a bunch of consults, including a 9 yo young lady who we are treating in a brace for her early onset scoliosis (EOS). Her curve is not changing at all! She actually doesn’t mind her brace at all and has decorated it with dolphin and other stickers, as well as lots of great well wishes from family and friends! The patient and her parents said it was ok to share this picture with her and her brace. One of the things appreciate about Hey Clinic is how we take the time to get to know the child or adolescent as well as the family to help counsel the family with what choices make sense — taking the whole patient into consideration. One thing is for sure: convincing a 7 or 8 or 9 yo to wear a brace is much easier than most 12 or 13 year olds! We often use special probability growth charts, and discuss the child’s daily schedule and how the brace may or may not impact on them during the day. There is no doubt though: wearing a scoliosis brace is a big decision, and it is worth the time to discuss it first before spending a lot of money and possible family tension. No matter what age, you need to get buy-in from the person who is going to have to wear it and explain WHY and for HOW LONG and also that the brace is NOT A GUARANTEE that curve will not progress and possibly need surgery in future.
Today was my first day back to work after a nice almost 2 week break. I went back to work this past Friday and saw a bunch of consults, including a 9 yo young lady who we are treating in a brace for her early onset scoliosis (EOS). Her curve is not changing at all! She actually doesn’t mind her brace at all and has decorated it with dolphin and other stickers, as well as lots of great well wishes from family and friends! The patient and her parents said it was ok to share this picture with her and her brace. One of the things appreciate about Hey Clinic is how we take the time to get to know the child or adolescent as well as the family to help counsel the family with what choices make sense — taking the whole patient into consideration. One thing is for sure: convincing a 7 or 8 or 9 yo to wear a brace is much easier than most 12 or 13 year olds! We often use special probability growth charts, and discuss the child’s daily schedule and how the brace may or may not impact on them during the day. There is no doubt though: wearing a scoliosis brace is a big decision, and it is worth the time to discuss it first before spending a lot of money and possible family tension. No matter what age, you need to get buy-in from the person who is going to have to wear it and explain WHY and for HOW LONG and also that the brace is NOT A GUARANTEE that curve will not progress and possibly need surgery in future.Today I did 2 complex spine reconstructions, and saw two consults in between, which included a woman with severe flatback syndrome and severe collapsing scoliosis in her younger 60’s, which really went down hill after a hip replacement may have changed her leg length, and after 3 laminectomies over the years which may have destabilized her spine. She’s now in agony, and is bent way over with her lumbar lordosis now bent into 8 degrees of kyphosis! This will require an anterior-posterior reconstruction with mutlilevel laminectomies for her severe stenosis and posterior osteotomies as well, possibly a pedicle subtraction osteotomy (PSO).
It was great to be back at work today and see everyone at Hey Clinic and Duke Raleigh Hospital. Nurse Kelly noted that I had some minor abrasions on my knuckles — leftover from “Mr. Fix It” jobs I was doing over my Christmas break. There is never a dull moment. I actually got a chance to help out with some repairs on my plane this past week, and had to use my surgical skills to help the guys remove a special electronic device under the pilot’s seat! There was a Phillips head screw way down in a crevice that had to be removed, and then carefully lifted out of that crevice to get the piece out. This was definitely like the game “Operation”, or like my real world “Operation.” — we used great lighting, teamwork, and some cool tools as well as a gentle touch to get it done. I also fixed a toilet, and several other things.
I just got home, ate some reheated spaghetti and now catching up on 50 emails with my feet up and shooting off quick blog. Tomorrow I do a laminectomy decompression first thing in the morning, and then go over to WakeMed to do a big scoliosis in a young man with neurogenic adolescent scoliosis (non-idiopathic). More on that later.
I got a nice text from one of my old patients from NYC who had a Harrington rod fusion done many years ago. I sent him some stretching exercises for his back pain, and he’s doing a lot better — thanks for the text Ken!
We received two second opinion consults for adolescent scoliosis surgery from out of State today — both will be coming to see us soon. One is from Louisiana, and the other is from Indiana I believe.
Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
—— Forwarded Message
From: Dianna
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 13:55:11 -0500
To: Shelbi
Subject: Fw: Sabrina’s video text
Also…I thought Dr. Hey would love to see the below photo and short video if he can view it (my computer won’t play it) of Sabrina in a backbend. This was taken yesterday — she’s in Florida right now on a VT swim team training trip. She’ll swim in ACC Championships next month.
Have a great day,
Dianna
From: Dianna
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 13:55:11 -0500
To: Shelbi
Subject: Fw: Sabrina’s video text
Shelbi, I forgot to mention in my last email that I’ll have Sabrina help me with this article since she’s the patient. So, she’ll input her viewpoint, emotions, etc.
Also…I thought Dr. Hey would love to see the below photo and short video if he can view it (my computer won’t play it) of Sabrina in a backbend. This was taken yesterday — she’s in Florida right now on a VT swim team training trip. She’ll swim in ACC Championships next month.
Have a great day,
Dianna
—— End of Forwarded Message
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Lloyd A. Hey, MD MS
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com