Heather had her scoliosis surgery back on August 20th this year.
She’s 12 years old, and had a severe double curve.
Postoperatively, she did just great, and was able to start school 2 weeks after her surgery.
Her posture is now excellent, and she is not having any significant pain, and is back to all of her activities, doing well in school.
She hasn’t decided for sure what she is going to be when she grows up.
I told her I’d give her another year to decide.
Heather expressed some interest in seeing some of our surgical videos.  I have to do some searching around this Christmas break to see if I can find some of her footage from her surgery this August.

Some of my teen-age patients especially enjoy having some of their surgery filmed.  Some have even created their own life story before, during and after scoliosis/kyphosis surgery.  One of my patients named Michelle did an amazing job on such a video.  She actually narrated her whole scoliosis story, including introducing her whole family on camera in the preoperative area, with a huge smile on her face, explaining why she was excited about getting her curve fixed.  The final scene in her movie was about 6 months later at the pool in the summertime, as she dove into the pool with a bikini suit, and talked about her new posture and its effect on her life.

Years ago when I was still on faculty at “Big Duke”, Duke Medical Center, I was filmed for the Discovery Channel performing a double scoliosis surgery for a young woman with a severe curve.  That was QUITE an experience, to be shared another time.

Now we use video, including a special camera mounted in a sterile light handle to broadcast the view over the surgical field so the rest of the operating room can see, along with nursing and pre-med, physical therapy, and other students and orientees who can watch the surgery at a safe distance from the sterile field on a big screen HD monitor.

Just so our blog readers do not get confused:  There are 2 recent Hey Clinic adolescent scoliosis patients who are on the Blog named “Heather” — both with large double curves.  The Heather who had her surgery in August is 12 years old, and the Heather who had surgery this week is 17.  The dad of the 17 yo “Heather Scoli” dropped into clinic today to drop off some wonderful cookies to our staff, and got a chance to meet the 12 you “Heather Scoli” and her mom who was there at the same time.

On another note, our scoliosis surgery patient “Chelsea” from Wednesday this week went home to Wilmington NC this afternoon doing well.  She went home around 50 hours after surgery, walking and eating well, and did well in the “Home Bound” Room today, where she practiced climbing stairs and getting in and out of a test automobile.  We never rush our patients out of the hospital, which is a real blessing, but it is amazing how quickly our adolescent and young adult scoliosis and kyphosis patients are up and around, and wanting to go home.

Our 17 yo “Heather” who had her double curve scoliosis fixed yesterday did very well with physical and occupational therapy today as well, and will go home tomorrow or Sunday when she is ready.

Lloyd A. Hey, MD MS
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
Raleigh, NC USA
http://www.HeyClinic.com