Thanks. I found out yesterday that a cousin on his dad's side of the family also had scoliosis and had to wear a brace as a child. Her mom said it was very hard for her daughter to deal with (and she didn't have sensory issues) but the experience led to her consider a career in the medical field. My son also has an older gifted friend who was also recently diagnosed with scoliosis. This boy is already over six feet tall and surgery might be his only option because he is almost finished growing. At least there is a chance my son might be able to avoid surgery by wearing a brace. I hope so because he has an extreme fear of surgery just like I do after seeing what happened to my mother after she had "routine" surgery.
I think it was hearing that treatment could involve surgery that really got to him. This is a kid who rarely cries. He jokes his way through everything. This the kid who could find something positive in almost everything--even my mother's quality of life that I thought was just not there because with no short term memory she couldn't read or carry on a conversation or take care of even her most basic needs. But he was able to point out that she has her husband who takes good care of her and gives her the one thing she enjoys in life now--ice cream. He makes sure that she has all kinds of different flavors of ice cream. Her eyes light up with happiness when he tells her it is time for ice cream. My son told me that my problem is that I never found my "ice cream" and I spend too much time worrying and it really bothers him to see me worrying. He said his grandmother doesn't worry any more--she is past that now. I wish I had somehow been able to record exactly what he said because it brought tears to my dad's eyes and mine. He has a way with words, a definite gift, that I just don't have. When I recently had anxiety to the point that my blood pressure went out of control he sat with me and made jokes to distract me and talked me through it.
After my doctor's appointment, he heard me tell my husband about the woman who took my blood pressure who told me that it was the "highest she had ever seen" which was not something to tell someone in the middle of a panic attack and we talked about how important the things we say to people are, especially in times of stress. I have always told him that he has a real gift for knowing the right words to say to make people feel better.
He cried for the first time in a very long time yesterday and asked why this was happening to him and I so wished that I had his gift of knowing the right words to say. I so wanted to make him feel better. I went into another room and called my husband and he was able to come home from work early and he talked to him and reassured him that he will get through it and it will be okay. His sister called him about ten times last night to tell him important things like girls will still like him because of his personality and that if her boyfriend had this it wouldn't make any difference at all to her.
He is feeling better this morning, thank goodness.
I hope insurance will cover most of this. My sister-in-law told me that they went into debt because some things were not covered and she thought they spent about $25,000. My husband is older than I am and will retire in less than 4 years so the financial part of this has me a little worried too, but I forgot, I am not supposed to worry. I have to go find my ice cream.
