Maddy's Spine, Briella's feet

So we're all still kicking, life is busy, I haven't forgotten about this blog. We have just returned from two weeks in Australia, which was amazing. We had perfect weather and had a great time with friends and family. While we were there, we had Briella's dedication service which was really nice but also highly unorganised. 

Briella ended up being in the hip spica for a total of three weeks. That was an experience! Even being cast up to the waist wasn't enough to prevent Briella's stubborn feet from slipping back in the cast. She needed to be recast once. Her foot began slipping a second time but it wasn't bad enough to recast her again. After the spica was removed, she was meant to be either in leg casts, or little boots (like the ones with a bar that she had overnight after the surgery) for another couple of months, but our doctors realised that it was futile since her feet were slipping out almost immediately. Instead, we are back to taping and stretching. We have very frequent physio and orthopedic appointments which are focused on her stubborn little feet, but we have had ok results from the tenotomy, gaining around 20 degrees of movement in each foot. Her right foot is now quite acceptable, however her left foot (the more stubborn one) will likely need further work done on it. 

While Briella's feet are taking up most of my time at the moment, my current main concern is Maddy's spine. We have been waiting since October for a CT scan to give us more information about exactly what is going on with her spine, and in that time it seems as though her scoliosis has gotten worse. In addition, in the past few months, Maddy has been complaining from time to time of pain in her back. Being only three, it is hard to know exactly how bad the pain is and whether it is related to her scoliosis or not. After contacting our spinal ortho, he advised us to come in for an extra appointment. The doctor there told us "given the degree of Maddy's deformity, I'm sure she is in pain on a daily basis, however she probably has a pretty high pain tolerance as well". That's not a nice thought :( He said though that he thought Maddy's pain was coming from her hips rather than from her scoliosis, however the orthopedic doctors who look after Maddy's hips disagree - they think it is spine related.

We (ironically) received the appointment for the CT scan for while we were in Australia (the only two weeks out of the last year or so that we were out of Hong Kong)! Fortunately they were able to reschedule it without waiting for another six(!!) months and the new CT appointment will be on May 20. After this appointment, the doctors will be able to have a clearer picture of the exact condition of Maddy's spine, whether or not there is the much-debated hemivertebra, and whether we need to start thinking about surgery.Our follow up appointment is on May 26, so we will get the report from the CT scan then.

Please keep us in your thoughts throughout this month as we learn more about Maddy's spine and what the plan is for managing it. Ideally, it's best to delay any major spinal surgery for as long as possible, as surgery restricts the growth of the spine. We will see what happens...