With apologies for the excitement and rah rah rah, I have a second happy grit and gratitude post about Riley in two days. She just went to her 6 month scoliosis appointment, and the result was unexpected and unusual: She has reduced her scoliosis curve from 29 degrees to 25 degrees through her brace, exercise and sports, nutrition, good luck, whatever. The doctor told us six months ago when she switched to only wearing the brace at night that her scoliosis curve would probably increase a few degrees and that was normal. But instead it was reduced by a few degrees, which is extremely rare. Even better!
She’s still been wearing the back brace at night the last six months, but now she’s all DONE — one week before starting high school, which was her goal. She has contacts instead of glasses, a strong back instead of an overly curved one in a brace, and she’s ready to drive the high school boys crazy. She’s all done growing and in the clear — her spine even better than when it was diagnosed. The doctor told her it would not have happened without her unwavering dedication to the treatment.
One story about this dedication stands out to me. On Wednesday night, two days before today’s doctor appointment where she was fully expecting to get the good news that she could stop wearing the brace, she went to a team bonding sleepover party with her new soccer team. These girls are all serious jocks, and I gave her the opportunity to leave the brace at home and not sleep in it, thinking that her “brace-ending appointment” was today and she probably wouldn’t want her new “jock group” to know she was a scoliosis girl if they didn’t have to know.
“No, Dad,” she said. “I don’t wanna mess anything up before my appointment. Let’s do it right. It’s just two days.” So she brought her brace, she taught her new badass soccer teammates how to put it on her before she went to bed, they helped her get it on, and she wore it Wednesday night.
That mentality probably has something to do with why her scoliosis curve is only 25 degrees.
Okay, sorry for all the Happy Proud Dad posts about my damn snot of a punk Riley. But this was a really big day and a really big deal for us. Have a great weekend.