What do I do as a parent if I am having second thoughts about my adolescent's scoliosis surgery? Cam's mom shares why she sought a second opinion and thanksgiving for Cam's consult and successful surgery

Cam, our 17 you young lady who had adolescent idiopathic scoliosis surgery with us 3 days ago was feeling much better this morning  at Duke Raleigh Hospital after getting over some stomach pains and some lingering nausea.  She felt really good this morning, and I got a chance to sit down with her and her mom Gina, who is a nurse and go over some discharge planning and sharing together.


Gina shares her "mom story" about how she struggle a bit with the decision for scoliosis surgery for her daughter.  The YouTube video also gives her a chance to thank the Hey Clinic and Duke Raleigh Hospital staff as well as talk about our new Twitter Feed communication during surgery -- a Hey Clinic first on Saturday!

Here in this picture, Cam is standing up straight next to me -- about 2 inches taller than when she came in.  She had some kyphosis as well as scoliosis that we were able to correct.

You can tell that she is fired up and ready to go home this morning, three days after her scoliosis surgery, cleared by physical and occupational therapy

When I did Cam's surgery, I cut two 5.5mm cobalt chrome rods to the proper length out of a 60 cm rod.  Those two rods, as shown on my tweets that day were carefully contoured to the proper shape, and inserted using special techniques to gradually straighten her up in all 3 dimensions.  There was a small piece left over, which I saved and gave to her today (clean of course!)  She thought this was pretty cool, and wants to make it into a piece of jewelry --- fairly heavy duty jewelry I think!!

Cam showed us her new posture- what a difference from preop photo taken the night before surgery!!  (See before and after photo above.)  You can see her preop back photo that her folks took the night before on the left, and this morning's straighter Cam 3 days after surgery.  Read more about the surgery at :  "I've Got Your Back" Blog from a few days ago.....


Get well soon, Cam!  You look great!!
Have a great Christmas.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com