Nora’s had a cold recently and yesterday we found out it has turned into pneumonia. This can be more complicated for a couple of reasons. I should back up a little, she’s also out of her cast.  She’s been out for over two weeks now.  Not ideal.  We had to postpone her casting twice because of her cold and now once again because of pneumonia.

But back to the complications.  Because Nora isn’t in a cast right now her spine has ‘relaxed’ into its normal state (it could possibly have progressed some too she hasn’t had an x-ray since August so we don’t know for sure). Her curve is already measuring 60 plus degrees. Since its relaxed out of cast, it’s pressing into her lungs now. This is one reason why we cast her, to get her spine straight in the cast so her lungs can grow properly. Now with pneumonia and the pressure on her lungs it could make it harder for her to kick the illness. Thankfully it was caught early so that’s on our side.

The other setback here is this will push her next casting out even further, most likely 4 weeks or more. The anesthesia team will not put her in the OR so soon after an infection in the lungs. Being put under puts a lot of strain on the lungs as it is, if they aren’t fully healed it can easily bring on a very serious infection or illness.

So this could change our casting and bracing plans for summer. This could change our summer vacation all together, which is upsetting and frustrating. But we’ve learned a long time ago with this diagnosis we have to just take it one step at a time. Right now we just need to focus on getting her healthy. Thankfully she’s a tough little tater tot. She’s smiling through it all, a good sign indeed! We can do this!