Caelans spinal surgery in Germany

Hi, I'm Caelan.

In May 2018, I was diagnosed with scoliosis. My mum had noticed it earlier that year but it seemed to get rapidly worse in quite a short period of time.

Scoliosis is simply the curvature of the spine. Many people have scoliosis, and often nothing needs to be done to treat it. Some get bracing to prevent it getting worse. When we visited an orthopaedic surgeon, he explained that generally any curve above 50 degrees requires surgery. When I had some X-rays in May it was 65 degrees, and by October it was 71 degrees.

The surgeon told mum and I that I had to have spinal fusion. This is where the vertebrae are fused together to create a single bone which means that there will be no flexibility. Mum spent hours and hours researching and emailing specialist surgeons all over the world who perform both spinal fusion and also a very new type of surgery called Vertebral Body Tethering (VBT) and Anterior Scoliosis Correction (ASC). These two are almost the same thing; you can ask mum for the boring details if you're interested. Mum sent my X-rays to lots of surgeons overseas, and we saw four specialists here in Australia.

In the end, mum, dad and I decided on ASC, based on the fact that the surgeons who perform both fusion and ASC/VBT all advised that I'd be a great candidate for ASC. So we are heading to Germany at the end of January 2019! I know what you're thinking - so soon! But the thing we've learnt about scoliosis is that while I'm still growing, the curve can worsen extremely quickly.

We are amazed that so many family members and friends have said they want to get behind us in any way they can. So, as well as holding some fundraising events, we are setting up this crowd funding campaign to help us pay for the surgery. The surgery costs €35k, which is about $55k AUD. On top of that we have flights (on the way back it needs to be Business Class so I can lie flat), accommodation, etc., so any amount towards the surgery would be a huge blessing to us.

Thank you for understanding why we're asking for support. It’s not easy to be the person asking for help but I am so grateful that so many people care. It has made such a difference just knowing that people are concerned, even if they are not able to help.

Much love,

Caelan