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Feb 20, 2015
643
0
illinois
So, as I have mentioned before on here, DD has scoliosis. First diagnosed at 12 yoa. Spinal fusion surgery at 14. Well, today was three year post-op X-rays and visit to the surgeon. Everything looked good, and all hardware holding tight and doing its job. No more visits required for two years!!!!!!

Oh, and so this is about softball...surgeon says DD is still cleared to continue playing softball and doing cheerleading.;):D
 

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
Great news!
just wondering, does any of her therapy include gravity inversion stuff?
I really want to do that for my back and when I saw "scoliosis" it made me wonder if it would be good for that, too?
 
Feb 20, 2015
643
0
illinois
Great news!
just wondering, does any of her therapy include gravity inversion stuff?
I really want to do that for my back and when I saw "scoliosis" it made me wonder if it would be good for that, too?

No they never had her do any inversion therapy. At first physical therapy was nothing more that learning to walk again. The way the spine is fused made everything different. After four months or so, they had her running slowly on the treadmill. They had her do all kinds of different exercises to strengthen the core. Doctors and PTs stressed to her that she should always be doing core strength exercises, mostly just planks because she can't do anything else. First things the Pts told her after surgery is that she should never ever do another sit-up in her life because it stresses the vertebrae below her fusion.
 

softgabby

Gear Empress
Mar 10, 2016
1,073
83
Just behind home plate
So, as I have mentioned before on here, DD has scoliosis. First diagnosed at 12 yoa. Spinal fusion surgery at 14. Well, today was three year post-op X-rays and visit to the surgeon. Everything looked good, and all hardware holding tight and doing its job. No more visits required for two years!!!!!!

Oh, and so this is about softball...surgeon says DD is still cleared to continue playing softball and doing cheerleading.;):D

Thank you for the update about your daughter's scoliosis. I'd imagine her road to recovery wasn't easy for the surgery and I'd imagine she still has days where she still has a good bit of pain. How was her scoliosis discovered? Did she have a lot of pain before it was found out?

I too, like your daughter, am looking forward to fall season of softball. I am also looking forward to my first season as a cheerleader. Hoping to still hear about your daughter kick butt :).
 
Jul 19, 2014
2,390
48
Madison, WI
Thank you for the update about your daughter's scoliosis. I'd imagine her road to recovery wasn't easy for the surgery and I'd imagine she still has days where she still has a good bit of pain. How was her scoliosis discovered? Did she have a lot of pain before it was found out?

I too, like your daughter, am looking forward to fall season of softball. I am also looking forward to my first season as a cheerleader. Hoping to still hear about your daughter kick butt :).

Interesting. One time when I had a flight that was delayed about 5 hours, I was seated by a small group of young ladies who were all cheerleaders. (They didn't know each other before that evening, sort of "hey, you were a cheerleader, too!" type of thing).

One of the girls was a cheerleader and a softball player at the same time, so I know it can be done.

A **HUGE** word of caution -- in many places, cheerleaders do some rather dangerous stunts. Not like when I was in HS, when the cheerleaders were popular girls who could dance around and manage an occasional pyramid. Some of the cheerleaders had to quit because if multiple concussions, although in one case it was a concussion that came from pitching without a mask. Be careful out there.

And as far as the stereotypes about cheerleaders -- the head cheerleader from my senior year of HS, also the homecoming queen, is now a research professor at Harvard Medical School.
 
Feb 4, 2015
127
0
Olathe, KS
Interesting. One time when I had a flight that was delayed about 5 hours, I was seated by a small group of young ladies who were all cheerleaders. (They didn't know each other before that evening, sort of "hey, you were a cheerleader, too!" type of thing).

One of the girls was a cheerleader and a softball player at the same time, so I know it can be done.

A **HUGE** word of caution -- in many places, cheerleaders do some rather dangerous stunts. Not like when I was in HS, when the cheerleaders were popular girls who could dance around and manage an occasional pyramid. Some of the cheerleaders had to quit because if multiple concussions, although in one case it was a concussion that came from pitching without a mask. Be careful out there.

And as far as the stereotypes about cheerleaders -- the head cheerleader from my senior year of HS, also the homecoming queen, is now a research professor at Harvard Medical School.

My youngest DD was a catcher in softball (finished at 16U A/Gold) for seven years and has cheered for 8 years. Up until last year when she had to make a decision between cheer of softball due to concussions. 1st concussion was in cheer (out of school for a month and missed nationals). She is a flyer and got dropped. Second one was a result of a car accident that was not her fault. She was out of school for three months. School district said she if she received one mere concussion she was done with athletics. Rather than take a chance doing both she decided to do cheer.

It can be done but don't let anyone kid you cheer is an athletic sport. These girls workout and work hard all year round. In Kansas it is the only athletic group that can train all year round as a team. Last year the strength coach heard from some football and basketball player that they did not think cheer was athletic. He brought them in with the girls and had the boys do the cheer conditioning routine. All but a couple of the boys didn't even make it half way through and none of the boys made it all the way through. The girls earned a lot of respect that day.

As for dangerous. No more so than football, but the girls are not wearing helmets or pads. Our orthopedic doc says he about the same number of knee injuries and concussion between cheer and football, but the cheerleader injuries are more severe.

As for academics her cheer squad had a 3.875 GPA with 5 girls carrying and unweighted 4.0 average (4.3 weighted).

I will say that I am more scared for her when she cheers and get thrown in the air then I evef have been with some of the bruising hits she has taken during plays the plate.
 
Feb 20, 2015
643
0
illinois
DD is able to do the sideline cheer team, but is not on the competition team. Prior to surgery she was in tumbling and had been for several years. She was able to do roundoffs into a back tuck, or roundoff into a twist, standing back tucks, etc. All that was immediately taken away, and was the hardest thing for her. That is the one thing that she is still not cleared to do is any kind of tumbling.

And Olathedad nailed that one...cheer is one of the most dangerous sports, resulting in a lot on injuries every year. DD was a smaller girl and would have been one of the flyers. That would have def made me a nervous wreck.
 

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