United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My daughter who is 15 was just diagnosed with scoliosis by thw school nurse. Her regular dr. thinks its pretty serious and wants us to see Dr. Kozin for a follow up about this because of her bpi. Anyone know anything about bpi and scoliosis?

Many of us have scoliosis to varying degrees b/c of the BPI and the way we use our bodies to compensate. Mine is mild enough that they didn't need to treat it, but I also kept active and kept my core muscles strong.

One of my daughters (not bpi) had (has) scoliosis. She was just under the bracing level and so we treated her by keeping her on a competitive diving team (6 days a week of 3 hour diving training is the best physical therapy). Now she is doing yoga. The specialist we went to checked all of my kids as I have scoliosis, as do my mother, all of my siblings and my dad.

He believed that most scoliosis was genetic. Even in bpi cases, he found that most of them had a genetic predisposition. So far Juliana (our bpi child) has not shown any scoliosis tendencies.

Please go see multiple specialists. There are many differing views of how treat scoliosis. Some believe in surgery in many cases, others don't believe in surgery except for the most serious. Some like the braces, but I know people who have back pain as adults because of bracing as children. Do your research.

good luck,
claudia

I have ideopathic scoliosis (probably genetic) and I was never treated or braced. I just had cursory core strengthening exercises assigned, which didn't really do anything. I had a very extreme curve that was just short of bracing with the Milwakee (sp?) brace, but I finished growing fast enough that I avoided the brace. My right shoulder blade tends to wing and not lay flat because my ribs protrude on that side. I have all sorts of trouble with back pain and tension in my mid back because of it. I hope you can get your daughter better treatment than I had!

Kate