Our first appointment today was at 11.30 in Cambridge with Dr Ross-Russell.  This meant leaving home fairly early in case we get stuck on the M25.  In fact we had a good journey and arrived in plenty of time for our meeting with Dr Ross-Russell.  He examined Chris and then did a full lung function test to check his flow rates.  Despite the size of Chris’ curve the results were good and he estimated there was a less than 5% chance of Chris needing to be on an airway post surgery.  This was a great relief to all of us.

We then met Sarah Charlton, a Physiotherapist who specialises in paediatric othopaedics and spinal deformity.  She examined Chris and was impressed with the muscle tone in this back and how he was able to improve his posture and align his spine by himself thanks to all the exercises and stretches we have done with him over the last year!  She also showed us a number of pre and post op x-rays from surgical corrections done by Mr Conlan and Mr Crawford.  The x-rays were really impressive and Chris didn’t seem bothered by the sight of all that metal work in someone’s back.

After finishing with Sarah we headed off to find somewhere for lunch and opted for Frankie and Benny’s for something quick and tasty as we only had about 50 minutes before we had to be at Addenbrookes for the MRI Scan.

Yet again Chris was really cool about the MRI and didn’t seem to be too bothered by the small space he had to be in, or the loud noises the machine makes.  Once the technician had checked the scans we were free to go – unfortunately straight into the evening rush hour traffic so it was a very long journey home.

But today was a good day.  Everyone we met has been really positive about the likely outcome of surgery for Chris and I have great confidence in them.  I just wish we had a confirmed date so that we could start planning and preparing ourselves for it.  Hopefully it will come through soon.