Can you help my son?

Crystal Strickler

I am not sure who in this group had mentioned their child getting a Whisper Brace a couple months ago but I want to thank you for lighting a fire in me to do some more research and further advocate for my 12-year-old son. My son who has had a complicated medical journey that includes syndromic juvenile scoliosis, was diagnosed at 2.5 years old and has been pretty non-compliant wearing a traditional Boston brace for several years. He currently has both a 35-degree thoracic and 34 degree lumbar curve and has been in Schroth physical therapy for 1.5 years. He has been out of a brace for almost 10 months due to sensory issues and non-compliance.?My son has not gone through any of his big growth spurts yet and we feel that he has limited time left to address his curve without guaranteeing him a trip into needing surgery.??Both my husband and I have been at our wits end trying to get him to wear his brace even for just a few hours.?He never was able to sleep in it or really function and run around easily in his Boston Brace.

After doing some research I reached out to Green Sun Medical who is the company who designed this new style of brace called the Whisper Brace to treat scoliosis.?We connected with them and are fortunate enough to live not too far from an experienced Orthotist who was starting to fit this new brace.?The process was super easy and less daunting for my son.?With the Boston Brace, he literally had to be mummified on a Riser Table and casted to get the corrective brace made which took quite a while to do.??With the new Whisper Brace, the orthotist takes measurements, also takes a 3D- 360-degree?image with an attachment on an I-Pad, and refers to his most current x-rays. This was super easy for my son to handle.

Fast Forward to yesterday and picking up my son's new Whisper brace.?All I can say is that this was a huge win for our family.?I was shocked how easy it was for him to put on standing up against a wall (the other brace always had to be put on lying down).?He could move, he was not complaining at all about how hot it was to wear, he could run outside easily with it on, and most of all he ACTUALLY wore it without complaints.?Even though he has a sort of breaking in the new brace wearing schedule, he independently just left it on, and the kicker was that he slept with it for the FIRST time the entire night with it on.?He NEVER had worn his previous 3 braces overnight ever.?This morning he took it off for maybe 25 min max while getting ready for school and told me that he was ready to put it back on and wear it to school (lol...he always resisted with his previous braces).?

Needless to say I am so grateful to Jamie and Matt from Green Sun Medical who spear headed the design of the Whisper Brace.?They have truly designed something revolutionary with their brace in taking into account that kids want to be active and not so restricted while still providing the necessary treatment to slow the curve down.?I am so grateful to them for really providing such a high level of personalized care and making sure the child is taken care of even if their brace is not the right fit for your child. (I mean how many companies CEO actually call the patients that are fitted into their brace??).?I think of this brace as a fluid dynamic brace that allows your child to move but still applies the right resistant pressure to keep the spine aligned.?Parents, listen to your guts if something is not working.??I did encounter a little resistance from his ortho team but I think that it is mainly due to the fact that this is still "new" since 2016 and the clinical trials are still going. Many doctors do not know or have had the time to learn about innovative new devices and tend to lean toward what they know.?That being said progress cannot be made without innovation and change.?Regardless of whether or not my son has to have surgery in the future, I know that at least we tried everything we could before having to go down that road.?Huge Kudos to the Whisper Brace and its designers at Green Sun Medical and the parent who mentioned their child in this brace.?THANK YOU!