We just could use a few prayers our way for the oldest royal princess. I will post more details later, but it is almost a certainty she will be having major spinal surgery in the next month or two. We are keeping our options open, and are going to see a second Orthopedic surgeon tomorrow. Doug took her for her first consult on Wednesday this week. Tomorrow is another doctor. And to top it all off tomorrow is her 12th birthday. Needless to say we are all scared, but we plan on taking it one step at a time. We will let you guys know as things progress.

Thank you all in advance for your support and prayers. You guys are all the very best!

Our thoughts are with you, hope all goes well, tell her Happy birthday.

Wow, Thouhts are with you guys......Hope everything goes well.

Cortni,

Our thoughts are with you and your family. Hope everything is ok. Let me know if I can help out with anything.

PP

You can send some poppers over.

Thank you guys, we will see what happens tomorrow. I told her we'd wait until mid-July to do any type of surgury so she could swim and have a fun summer. Plus we can always home study if she has to miss the first few weeks of school. She did not that was a bad idea at all.

Major deal for sure. When life throws you one of these curve balls, what can you do? Just deal with it. We are trying to support Sabrina as much as possible. She is doing OK for now. But my heart dropped when the doctor told her she could end up paralized or even die during the surgery. I know the doctor is required to say that, but he sure didn't try to sugar coat it at all. Or even tell me first before telling her, which I would have appreciated.

I think in the long run she will be fine. But it is a VERY serious spinal operation. 75% of my brain says "They do this all the time, no big deal." The other 25% of my brain says "HOLY COW, this is scary!"

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers everyone.

Sabrina is a strong, tough girl. And she has lots of people who love her and will pray for her. Not sure what's wrong with her. Spinal cord surgeries are scary things, but I'm sure she'll get through it just fine. Hang in there Mom and Dad. We're behind you two and especially Sabrina.

Prayers are with you, Hope everything turns out well.................

QG and KG-

My thoughts, prayers and best wishes go out to you and your family!

Everything will be fine! Kids are resilient and she'll bounce back stronger and better than ever!

Keep us posted on her status.

Prayers on the way. God bless and take care. And please keep us posted.

Zilla

Best wishes from the ChuckZilla house.

had my spinal fusion in jan and can say it was the scariest but would do it in a heart beat again. have faith and trust in your dr.

good luck and happy birthday

We'll keep her and all of you in our prayers. She'll get through this, and so will you Mom and Dad. Let us know if you need anything.

Sabrina is a tuff kid and I know she will come thru this with flying colors.

You know you guys have our prayers...

Wow my thought s and prayer are with her and you guys she will do great with great parents like you two.Please don't hesitate to ask for anything if needed we are here for ya.

Keep us updated

We're all pulling for her, best wishes and as Happy a Birthday as possible from the PWR MAD family.

Physco dog sends kisses too.

Slap sends his prayers QG, his fingers are crossed.

Sure thing, let me figure how to keep them hot while they are shipped

WOW! My thoughts are with you guys, what a huge thing for her to have to deal with. Best wishes and tell her Happy Birthday.

dammm.....

i will pray for all of you on this. i hope everything goes flawlessly...

*sigh*

Stay strong you two. You have a lot of prayers coming from us all and Sabrina is probably tougher than you think............kids usually are. Keep us posted with what happens with the doctor today and I'll call you later. Love you guys.

So sorry to hear this Doug and Cortni. We'll be pulling for her.

Cortni & Doug....Prayers are coming in from the Beachhead household too. Please keep us updated on how things are going.

Always saddened to hear about children having to deal with major issues like these

Thoughts and prayers from Christi and I, and a big Happy Birthday!

LOTS of love and prayers heading your way!!!!

Ditto... We are here for you guys if you Need ANYTHING

You guys are in my thoughts and my prayers. Tell the Princesses and boy-boy that I say hi!

what is the diagnosis?

Im sorry to hear this is happening so such a great kid and family.. Please send her our love and we'll send the prayers out..

If you guys need anything, let us know..

Sorry to hear about this. Sabrina's a strong girl, I'm sure she'll pull thru it fine. Gotta make sure she's good to go for duning season in the new car.

Sabrina is in our prayers hang in there guys.

One prayer down and more on the way.

Wow, sorry to hear the bad news. We will keep all of you in our thoughts and prayers. If you need anything we are just a phone call away.

Chris and Kim

My thoughts and prayers are with you as well.

Of course being a realist, I don't really think prayers do much except make people feel good. Unless any gd.com member is an orthopedic surgeon, there isn't much we can do directly.

Surgery is not a crapshoot. It requires skill and experience. Apparently everyone researches the hell out of which buggy builder contributes cash to the ASA. Compared to spinal surgery, it means nothing.

DO NOT trust in your doctor. Do some research. When I researched the 3 doctors recommending major lung surgery on my mom, I discovered that:

2 out of the 3 WERE NOT currently licensed to practice medicine in CA.

NONE of the 3 were recommended by any other doctors

the one doctor that they were telling me was going to be the lead surgeon had just finished his internship which is why he had a license, the other 2 had lapsed

NONE of the 3 were aware of or capable of performing the latest arthroscopic or microsurgery techniques. They were just going to rip open the ribcage of a 68 yr old woman and stick both hands in, pull out her lung, and hack it up. Low % success rate, incredible risk of infection and 2 yr or more recovery period.

The BEST surgeon in San Diego told us NOT to do the surgery, so we took his advice and the symptoms have gone away

Do an internet search on spinal surgery, find out the latest techniques. You can check the educational history and current license status of any doctor online.

Insist on the best in the area, don't be afraid to hurt the feelings of some intern or hack. Just because he's a doctor doesn't mean he's any good. Ask several doctors who is the best, they won't trash a colleague, but they know who is the best or better than average.


This post is the only way I know to really help. Let me know if you need some help researching, although I hardly think Doug needs any help from me researching on the net.

My prayers and those of my family for you. Having gone through two open hear surgeries with one of my daughters the emotional swings can be severe for the parents. As others have said, children seem to miraculously roll with the punches of life, but they can "sense" fear in the parents with great ease. I too am a realist. A realist that has first hand witnessed the notable power of the prayers of people, especially those towards the innocent children.

My wife and I shall pray for her as well as wisdom for the parents in working through this time.

King and Queen... my best wishes go out to everyone involved... this is not an easy thing to deal with.

As I sit here typing this, I am looking at a shelf full of Spinal Implants that I have or need to do Inspections on. I might not be able to help DIRECTLY but, I can recommend the best Spine docs out there... Dr. Haider in Riverside is the owner of our company and knows his "stuff" more than any doctor I have met. We deal with many docs, if you guys need a list, I can get one for you. Of course, insurance has a lot to say about who the Doctor is but, it doesn't hury to try.

As nerve racking as this may be, these surgeries are 99.9% successful. I have yet to hear about a problem with any patient (trust me, I would because the FDA would be at out door in a minute). Sure minor complications arise but, it's not exactly the same as assembling a Lego set.

If you guys need anything, let me know. If you're researching, my company's name is SeaSpine, I am the only QC Inspector and nothing goes out to the OR unless it is perfect.

Good luck.

This has been real hard for me hearing the sad news, Cortni is like my sister and her kids are like mine as mine are like hers. I know Sabrina is real strong and will pull through this but I get real sad and want to cry when I thinkof what this kid will have to go through and whats going on in her head at her age, It will make her better in the long run.

I know she is a strong girl but it makes me so sad, that she has to go through this. I know that Doug & Cortni know I am there for them, I hope and pray for the best for my long lost sista Sabrina!!!

I love you!!


Carin

Thank you very much everyone. Cortni took Sabrina to a different doctor today to get a second opinion. He agreed that surgery is mandatory.

Toy Collector, do you have any suggestions in the Phoenix area? If you do maybe you could PM us your phone number and we'll call you. Thanks.

WOW, we are behind you Sabrina, we know that you will be fine.

Cortni , Doug and Sabrina... Our prayers are most certainly being said for you. Vicki is very worried, please keep us all posted in this situation. If there is any thing we can do to help please know we are but a phone call away.

Well here's the scoop.

For the past year or two we have known Sabrina had mild scoliosis. In the past 6-9 months it has become much worse. She never complains about anything, and without looking for it you'd probably never realize it. She has about 56 degrees of curve in her upper spine now. The doctors say it can grow a a rate of 2 more degrees a month because she is growing so fast now. The corrective surgery is pretty good, and usually fixes the problem. But it is a risky and involved procedure. It is beyond a brace, and the doctors said it is very aggressive and a brace may not have helped anyways. I took her for a second eval today and the doctor (who works on all the professional and ASU athletes) told me the hospitals he deals with will not take her surgery because of the high risk involved. So I have to gowith Dr. #1 because he practices at Phx Childrens Hospital. I guess they have a higher Trauma Level rating.

Steve, we are doing our homework for sure. And I may nit be a Church going person, but I believe in the power of prayer and support of our friends and family.

Thank you all. It means so much to us.

Here is some links to the procedures...

http://www.esurgeon.com/pitt/

http://www.esurgeon.com/pitt/

Toy Collector, please let us know if you have any info on Phoenix area Dr.'s.

Sandpugs, I am very interested in hearing more information about your procedure because they will be fusing several vertabrae in Sabrina's back.

We love you long time........

Good luck guys. You are doing the right thing to fully understand the procedure and get different opinions. Always hard when a child is involved.

My thoughts are with all of you.

Hi Sabrina,

your Gd family is wishing the best for you keep your spirits up ..

Thanks KG and QG for keeping us updated

Sabrina we are all here for ya

Cortni, You gotta stay positive, PCH is the best hospital for children, its completely rebuilt (1 year old) SUPER kid friendly and is a "teaching" hospital, that means yes there are interns but also some of the best of the best at what they do and teaching. I had a child in there and they saved his leg from being amputated due to a staph infection.

Ask questions, ask for a conference of the docs,ask more questions and above all, pray, theres no higher source or being, it works trust me.

We will say a prayer for both you and Doug and her. If you need anything ,just say so.

Chris and I are thinking of you all. We are glad you got a second opion keep stong and keep doing the research. We are certain with all the love and prayers you all will come out of this fine! Hang in there and you know we are right down the road so call if you need a sounding board. We will come right over and even bring the beer! We love ya!!!

I'll get a list together tomorrow from my boss and get it to you two.

QG andKG my families thoughts and prayers are with you guys. We wish you all the luck and a good doctors to get you through this.

Hi Sabrina,

You have a special spot in our thoughts and prayers, we are wishing the best for you. Mom and Dad, don’t rule out Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. It is one of, if not the best children’s hospital in the country. And of course you know you would have a place to stay that would be real affordable.

Absolute positive thoughts heading the your way from our household. I hope and wish that everything works out for the best for the little Princess.