I’m bumping this post up, because the time is getting close for us to find out exactly what is going on.
Originally Posted on the 24 April, 2008 at 10:59 am
On the advice from a very good friend in America, we’ve taken Jaxon to a chiropractor to try and sort out his arm and neck problems.
Our first appointment was on Tuesday. It was THE BEST. For the first time ever, someone sat and watched Jaxon play to see what he was and wasn’t doing with his arm, instead of asking me to explain it. I LOVED this. It’s so annoying to have someone ask something about Jaxon, when just a few minutes of their time and a few toys will show them what is going on. I was very impressed.
Anyway, he wanted to get x-rays done to see what is going on. They normally don’t do x-rays on such young children. But not many kids go to them with bent necks and dysfunctional arms. He needed to know what was actually wrong before he went ahead and tried to treat it.
We got the x-rays done that day and went back today to see what they could do for Jaxon. The very last thing I expected was to be told that Jaxon only has half of his cervical vertebrae C5.
THAT is why his neck is on a tilt, it has next to nothing to do with his torticollis (although that does still exist) He explained that the torticollis is what prevents Jaxon from turning all the way right, while the missing chunk of his vertebrae is the cause for the tilt.
We don’t know what this means. We don’t know if this means surgery. We don’t know if this means that Jaxon will live with his head the way it is for the rest of his life.
Now we have to get another appointment with the paediatrician and see what HE thinks. But being that this is in his neck, or more specifically, his spine…I can NOT see a single person who would be willing to go in and try to fix it. I’m not sure I would even want someone to fix it because the chance of something going wrong would far outweigh the choice to let Jaxon live with such a small thing.
Not that I think this is small. Don’t get me wrong. I spent a good part of my one hour trip home crying. I was not expecting to hear anything like this. In fact, I was so confident that the chiropractor would be able to work his magic on Jaxon for the next year or so and have everything under control. Before he saw the x-rays I think HE thought that as well. So I am of course upset.
Here are Jaxon’s x-rays. It was very difficult to get these done. Daddy had to hold him from the front while another nurse had to support him from the back. This was the “findings†that the x-ray man reported to the chiro. He did not pick up on the missing C5.
Posterior fusions of the cervical vertebrae and loss of disc height. Scoliosis (convex to the left side in both) the cervical and thoracic regions of the spine.
The chiropractor then wrote in his very messy doctor like writing, congenital aplasia of C5- hemivertebra
If you can make heads of tails of any of that, please leave a comment! Somewhere in that yellow circle is the missing vertebrae (or part of)
I just have to keep reminding myself that Jaxon will be ok with this. It’s not like he wont be able to walk or talk or be the smartest boy in school. He may or may not get teased, something I don’t wish on any child. But he WILL be ok even if that happens.
Edited to add, since this we have found out that there are possibly two hemi vertebrae and that he has 3-4 fused vertebrae on the right side of his neck, and the same again down the back. I am really looking forward to knowing EXACTLY what is going on in there, and more importantly, what can be done about it. We wont find out the WHAT bit until the 3rd of December, but the spinal surgeon has already told us they have to do something and it can’t be left.