Another Lift?

Since the beginning of August Travis has been asking me to rub on his lower neck/upper back in addition to where his tumor is located on his lower back. I spoke with Dr. Viskochil regarding this last week at T's routine rapamycin appointment and he wondered about scoliosis. This week Travis had his regular powerchair check with the mobility and seating group at Shriners in addition to his regular PT. (T's powerchair is doing great.)
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I spoke with the seating guy about the ache in T's neck and he suggested we try a cushion to help even T's bottom end when he sits since one "bum cheek" is larger than the other due to the plexiform. He gave us a cushion to try at school and said to let him know if that doesn't work and we'll look to something else. Matt's amazing. Travis took the cushion (it's actually the same as in his power chair) to school yesterday and said it helped. :)

Wednesday afternoon was a routine PT appointment and we also spoke with Mark about the pain (we work as a team for Travis with all of his medical providers, and they would ask if we spoke with each other anyway). Mark wondered if the pain could be due to an increase in T's leg length discrepancy and maybe needing to add to the shoe lift. He checked Travis' legs and there is an inch difference in the leg lengths with the current lift. *sigh and breath out* Mark is checking with Travis' orthopedic guys at Shriners to see if they want to add to the current lift, see Travis sooner than November, or something else. I'm not sure Travis' ortho guy wants to add to T's lift given that it's already 7cm.  Any increase in the lift increases falling and possible twisting of Travis' ankle. If we braced the right leg, then there is the trade-off of muscle atrophy. Mark will call me back with what he finds out from the ortho guys.

The good news is that Travis is getting around great! We've known that the way Travis walks is different and puts strain on places that don't experience that strain/force in individuals without Travis' concerns. We are mindful in keeping Travis as mobile as possible while keeping him from issues related to overuse. As before, there are no easy answers and there's a trade-off. Thanks for keeping T and our family in our thoughts and prayers.