Today Steve and I attended a seminar at Southampton Hospital organised by the Scoliosis Association UK. The focus was very much on surgical intervention for the treatment of severe cases of Scoliosis but it was really good to meet other people living with Scoliosis and to share experiences.
I went to the seminar with a strong aversion to surgery but by the end of the day my views had changed. The work the surgeons do is incredible and they have a particularly expert team at Southampton, led by Evan Davies. I managed to chat to him in a coffee break about Chris and what we were doing with the Schroth exercises. He was supportive of our efforts but said the lack of clinical trials for Schroth meant he could not endorse or recommend it. But he did say that exercise and strengthening the muscles in the back to restore muscle balance was a very good approach to take…that was enough of an endorsement for me!
We came away determined to carry on with the Schroth exercises but I also felt comforted in the knowledge that if, despite all our efforts, Chris has to have surgery I know the team at Southampton are experts in correcting Scoliotic curves.
We also decided that we would prefer Chris to be seen by Evan Davies so I will ask my GP to write a referral letter for us so that we can have our future review consultations at Southampton.