Session Twenty-Seven: Making the Crooked Places Straight, Part Eight

Session Twenty-Seven: Making the Crooked Places Straight, Part Eight

Our daughter began casting for scoliosis treatment in August of 2021. When she was placed in her sixth cast in November of 2022, we began to question if we should continue on the same course. After nine months in a less restrictive cast, our daughter’s scoliosis curve worsened by ten degrees. Yet, my heart was telling me that we needed to move away from the plaster cast. Our girl had been in a jacket cast for nearly 18 months, with few breaks. It was a source of great struggle for our family and even for our daughter, who handles every medical intervention with such joyful grace.

We had a very difficult decision to make. We had sought out the orthopedic specialists knowing that their wealth of experience in similar cases was worth the long drive. We truly believed we had placed our daughter in front of the very best surgeon possible. Yet, we were considering going against their recommendation to follow Mommy’s intuition on what was best for our daughter. Our growing concern for our daughter’s respiratory health was becoming a source of anguish. Her chest wall seemed disproportionately small when the cast was cut off at our previous appointment prior to the November casting.

I can only describe it as emotional unrest whenever I would think about our next visit for the casting procedure. We decided that it wouldn’t hurt to reach out to another orthopedic doctor at a local Children’s hospital. After listening to our concerns about prolonged time in the restrictive cast, doing an examination and looking at her x-rays, he suggested that a nighttime bending brace would allow her chest wall to grow while slowing the deterioration of her spine until the time came for growing rods. As soon as the doctor mentioned the Bosten bending brace, my spirit soared. I was so overcome with emotion and knew our prayers had been answered.

Prior to the appointment, our family joined together each night for nine days in a novena for intercession from St Gemma Galgani, who in her own grace-filled life was miraculously healed of a spinal condition. St Gemma wore an iron brace for a considerable time and is the patron saint of spinal injury and disease. We prayed to our Lord, Jesus Christ for wisdom and healing of our daughter’s spinal condition, trusting that the Holy Spirit would guide us to the right decision. And we believed that He was leading us in a new direction, though we understood the destination was still the same. We knew that the growing rods surgery was still the end game. And we also understood that a brace would not achieve the same level of spinal correction, but we followed our faith.

We chose to pursue this new path, and our daughter was molded for the brace. It was a terribly difficult decision for us, but we prayerfully came to this place, and we trust our Lord's faithful guidance. We felt at peace and were full of thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness.

In the next installment, we’ll share our experience with the Boston bending brace.