Orthopedic Appointment

We had our first appointment with the pediatric orthopedist today, and it looks like we have a long journey ahead of us. Princess's spine is actually curved at 42 degrees, and rotated as well. It's in the thoraco-lumbar area, which is basically just saying it is between the thoracic and lumbar areas of the spine. Doc said this is a rare place for the curve to be (most infantile curves are strictly thoracic) and, to make the case even more "interesting", her scoliosis is not congenital. They have no idea what caused it. So technically she has "idiopathic infantile thoraco-lumbar scoliosis".

Doc also mentioned that, in his 20 years of work, he can count on less than two hands the number of patients he has seen who had conditions like this one. In other words, we're stepping into a gray area where there is going to be plenty of speculation and theorization, and very few statistics or case studies to go on.
As if that weren't enough, she also has "Metatarsus adductus" of her right foot, where the front of the foot is bent inward toward the body, creating a bean shape. She will be getting her first cast for that next week, and the casts will be changed weekly thereafter for a while.

In two weeks, we will be meeting with another orthopedist who specializes in a particular casting technique which is most likely to help Princess's spinal situation. They are going to try to keep her out of surgery for as long as possible, but I got the impression that they believe surgery will eventually be inevitable. They just hope to wait until she has grown as much as possible before they start fusing her spine.