Trouble with the Curve

    As a sports enthusiast and former coach, James and I often find ourselves blissfully engrossed in the lore and competitive nature of an athletic storyline. There is generally a challenge that unfolds within the film, a few details that pull at your heartstrings, followed by a triumphantly motivational ending. We have been known to watch some over and over again. Dreamer, Trouble with the Curve, and Secretariat, are among the most recent favorites. Something about that winner's high at the end of a competition makes you want to rewind and relive. Never mind the fact, that my husband says I remind him of Leanne Tuohy from "The Blindside". I wish he was talking about her kind-hearted and selfless nature, but somehow I think he was talking more about her  strong-willed determination, sprinkled with a little bit of sass. Regardless of our love of sports, that type of storyline embodies how I’ve always felt our life story should unfold. 

  

  The premise of “Trouble with the Curve” starring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, and Justin Timberlake, is to be able to deal with whatever life throws at you, adjust, and make the best of each situation.  Sometimes there are fast balls that come right over the center of the plate and sometimes there are curves and you must adjust. As Momma to our beautifully curious little boy, Hunter, we are always experiencing adventure in our little part of the world. Last week, it was literally like the movie "Finding Nemo", when we couldn't find one of our clown fish in our newly started salt water fish tank. Poor Hunter was crying in his high chair in the background, because he couldn't "help" or see what was going on. A couple of nights, it was Hunter learning the nuances of a hotel room: learning to flush the toilet repetitively, opening the door and running down the hallway to chase me, while I was getting ice, and now learning to peacefully sleep in his Thomas the Train blow-up travel bed, but I digress.   

   

  What James and I didn’t know, is that we would literally experience our own “Trouble with the Curve” so soon, as Hunter was recently diagnosed with progressive infantile scoliosis (PIS) and a tethered spinal cord in October 2013, at the age of 13 months.

   When most people hear the word "scoliosis" they immediately call to mind the spinal check done with most physicals during the early teen years. While this isn't totally off base, as scoliosis is a curvature of the spine and is most commonly detected during the teen years, it's not quite the scenario in our Hunter man's case. Below, I've listed some basics to kind of break everything down.

Progressive: increasing, growing, developing

Idiopathic: has no known cause, divided into 4 sub categories depending on occurrence- infantile, juvenile, adolescent, or adult

Infantile: generally identified between birth and age 3

Scoliosis: curvature of the spine

  Progressive Idiopathic Infantile Scoliosis is found in, I believe, about 1% of the idiopathic scoliosis population in children. When scoliosis is detected in the juvenile and adolescent years, it is most commonly detected in females. However, about 60% of all infantile idiopathic cases are male. Less than .1% have curves that measure greater than 40 degrees and Hunter is in that .1% 

  Hunter's situation was compounded with a tethered spinal cord. I will go more into our journey and that part of the story later, however he is considered idiopathic, because the tethered cord is not the main cause of the scoliosis. Often times, scoliosis is genetic, but in our scenario and to our knowledge, we have no family members on either side that have scoliosis. As his first doctor said, "I guess y'all kind of won the lottery." Not necessarily the lottery I was hoping to win, but at least this one will make us stronger and wiser.

    I believe that everything happens for a reason and that God blesses us when we can least imagine it. If you have the pleasure to meet our son, you will instantly be enamored by his huge personality and beautiful smiling face. I'm his Momma, so I can brag ;). Really though, he is the happiest and most determined little 17 month old that you have ever met. God has big plans for our little man, I am certain of that. James and I were talking with family recently and all agreed that he has the perfect personality for challenges such as those that he has, and will face. 

  When Hunter was born, James joked about us not receiving an instruction manual before leaving the hospital. We could sure use one about now. The truth is, you have to go with the flow and try to adapt to the curves that life throws you. God doesn’t always call the equipped, but equips the called. I am certain that He will equip us with the tools to be his parents and his advocates through this adventure.