Hips and Spine Continued...

Today we drove to Baltimore in the rain (it's always raining on dr. appt days) to take Andrew back to Kennedy Krieger so that he could be evaluated again for his dislocated hip and scoliosis. The appt. didn't start out so good....I had to ask for the proper x-rays, and I wasn't really liking how the x-rays looked, but after all of this the appt. actually went very well. Dr. Leet was the doctor who originally diagnosed Andrew with the dislocated hip last June. This was our first trip back to her since that diagnosis. She came into the appt. and told us she was worried about Andrew's spine ( I was worried about the hip!!!!) from the sitting x-ray that was just taken. I asked the doctor if Andrew could get the spine x-ray in his wheelchair where he is more supported. She said no that they have to do the x-ray in this wooden chair that has no support. That doesn't make sense to me. He can't sit even in a recliner chair, much less a straight up wooden board chair...Anyways that x-ray shows the curve of Andrew's spine at over 60 degrees - which is horrible. Dr. Leet then looked at the x-ray of Andrew lying down on the x-ray table. This one looks so much better - almost a straight spine with a curve of 30 degrees Dr. Leet says Andrew has postural scoliosis which is when the spine bends and can straighten somewhat back to how it should be. As long as Andrew's spine is not rigid and stuck bent and worsening than we are good. His spine had not gotten worse. So good! Dr. Leet also said that Andrew does not need to wear his body jacket all day, only when his teachers are trying to position him in a stander or other equipment to give him more support. I have been arguing with his teachers that he does not need to wear this plastic brace all day long. It's uncomfortable. So, I've got the dr. note to bring into school for that. I don't want to hear that Andrew is uncomfortable or unable to eat his lunch because of this brace. Andrew's right hip is still dislocated, so we discussed pain. Dr. Leet said we would for sure notice Andrew in pain if he was experiencing pain with the hip - so that is good news too! I feel pretty certain that Andrew is not in pain from his hip. Andrew had a DEXA scan a few weeks ago to measure his bone density. Dr. Leet reviewed these results and said that his bones are weak, but that is to be expected of someone who doesn't use his muscles and bones properly and also the result of years of seizure meds. Andrew's scan actually looked better than was expected. Andrew weighed 95.2 lbs. and was just under 5 feet tall. Could my boy be thinning out? Okay, that's the latest on the most talked about hips and spine in Maryland.....