So, to start at the beginning...
I was out to the movie one night when Quinton had an itchy back. He asked Jeff to scratch it. Jeff pulled up his shirt and scratched but was amazed to see a huge curve in his spine and lump on one side of the back. I called and made an appointment with Dr. Miller, our pediatrician, for Monday, May 2nd. Dr. Miller confirmed that it was scoliosis and referred us to Dr. Smith at Primary Children's.
We went to that appointment on May 17th, the day after he turned 11, and an X-Ray confirmed that he had a pretty major curve in his spine -- 43 degrees. Dr. Smith said that a few things about Quinton's scenario indicated concern for him, so he wanted to do an MRI to rule out other causes of the scoliosis. The concerns were the shape of his curve, his younger than normal age, and the quickness with which the curve progressed.
We weren't super concerned about his MRI (I was even making small talk with the technician about finding tumors on kids, never thinking this would happen to Q.) He was in the tube watching Harry Potter getting scanned by that loud, clanky machine for a while when I asked the technician if I could go trade off with Jeff, who was out in the waiting room with the girls. She said that she was actually calling the radiologist down to look at a scan she had just done and that parents weren't allowed in there while the radiologist was in. I went ahead and left to sit with Jeff and the girls for his 45 minute MRI. An hour and a half later, they brought him out and said that our doctor (Dr. Smith from the scoliosis specialty who had ordered the MRI) was upstairs that day and would like to talk to us about the results.
Heart pounding and legs heavy, we went up to meet with him. He told us there was a tumor on his spine, and he tried to explain a few things, but Jeff and I were too schocked to comprehend it. That wasn't his field, so he didn't actually know (or want to divulge) too much. He set us up with a pediatric neurosurgeon at Primary Children's for Monday, June 6th.
We waited away the weekend in anxiety but with an overwhelming sense of the love and support and fasting and praying that were being done on his behalf.
1 comment:
Lori,
Candice Hurley here. I just want you to know that growing up, my family went through this same experience. My older brother also had a tumor on his spine. However, his started showing at age eight, but was misdiagnosed for a year or so and was only treated as scoliosis during that time. I am so sorry to hear of another family having to go through this. Overall, my brother had to have 5-6 surgeries, but he's alive and doing well in life, has a family and great job. It sounds like they caught Quinton's sooner and hopefully he'll require no more surgeries. If you have any questions, please let me know.
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