Back Pain

Britt waiting for results....
Britt's x-ray of her spine....doesn't look too good!

Brittany has been complaining of back aches the last month, so I took her to our doctor to have her checked out. Well last school year she had a scoliosis screening at school and the nurse called me that day and told me that Brittany's one shoulder is lower than the other one. She said she might be from her carrying her back pack or bags on her one shoulder, or scoliosis and she doesn't need to see a doctor unless she starts having problems with it. So with her back aches I really wanted to have her seen for this. Our doctor did a really good check up on her and even showed me her spine and marked it for me to see it. He said she definately needs to have x-rays to see how bad her spine is. One good thing is that her legs are the same length, and usually one will be longer than the other. So that is good. He sent us over to the hospital to have some x-rays of her spine. We didn't have to wait which was so nice!! We had to take 2 sets of x-rays as the technician put the first ones on the wrong computer, we waited for him to put them in the right computer. He showed us the x-rays and said he has seen worse ones. It looked yucky to me!! So now we have to go see a Orthopedic doctor up at Primary Childrens Hospital in December. We have been reading up on it and it seems Britt's isn't too bad right now. Her degree is 23, and from what we have read it they usually put braces on at 25 degrees, and possible surgery at 40 degrees. So I hope she never needs the back surgery!! From what I have read girls in their puberty years will show the signs of scoliosis as they are growing so much. So it is only really treatable while they are growing. So if she has to wear a brace it will only be while she is growing, so maybe 2 years at the most. I don't really know until we talk to the doctor. If she has to wear a brace it will have to be on for 23 hours a day. They make them so you don't really see them under tight clothing so that is good. She is worried about that. It will keep her back from not getting any worse. Once she is done growing she will not need it anymore. Girls get this more often than boys, so please make sure you have your girls checked at their schools or doctors when they hit their puberty years! I almost didn't make her get checked at school as you need to sign a permission slip for them to be checked. She didn't want it done but I told her we should. I am so glad I signed that slip and got her checked!! I would feel terrible if we had not done it. We may have not caught it and it could have gotten worse. Wish her good luck for the doctors appointment in December!!