Support Cannon Cardosi's Scoliosis Treatment

Hi, my name is Angel and I am fundraising for Cherie and Cannon Cardosi so she can give her son the treatment he needs for his severe scoliosis. Unfortunately health insurance does not cover his treatment and I am hoping to help raise money so Cannon can continue this treatment plan and correct his scoliosis.

Here is Cannon's story written by Cherie (a very dedicated loving mother just wanting the best chance for her son):

This is Cannon and he is 10 years old, we are asking for help to get Cannon medical treatment to fight against an extremely aggressive scoliosis that is attacking his spine and body. Cannon has had scoliosis since he was 4 1/2 years old and orthopedics prescribed him a brace(Boston brace) that has been around since 1970s. After my own research I wanted a different brace for him the WCR brace that I felt was a better brace that insurance wouldn’t cover, we traveled to Texas two times a year to get him these braces so they would discount the $7,000 brace for him if we came to the home office clinic which would be $4500/brace each year. The brace helped him first couple years and kept his curve stable but by age 9 he was growing faster and beginning to hit more growth spurts and this brace was not enough anymore. I know the brace it not suppose to reduce the curve but hold it from progressing as much as possible. His curves had still progressed and he has had more rotation. He was diagnosed with a 28.6 degree thoracic curve at age 5. With having had 3 braces from age 5 to age 9 that he wears all day and sleeps in his curve had still progressed now to a 43 degree thoracic and 22 degree lumbar. The next step is an aggressive non-surgical scoliosis treatment at a clinic in Oklahoma City that medical insurance won’t cover. Please consider helping him get this much needed treatment…

The treatment needed will cost $5,000 for each week of intensive therapy. He will begin the treatment with 2 weeks of therapy ($10,000) and then 1 week every 10-12 weeks for the next 7-8 years. As part of his therapy he will need a traction chair which cost $7,900, nerve stretching table for $4,500, spinal weighting for $900 and an aggressive full torso brace (during the 7-8 years of treatments he will need 6-7 different braces as he grows) each one cost $6,500. Just to begin the program cost $30,000 not including expenses associated with traveling.

The plan of action from the orthopedics is to wear a brace to hold the curve as much as we can to keep it from progressing while growing then when he reaches skeletal maturity to do surgery or if the curve gets bad enough to do surgery now with spinal tethering. WELL this is NOT what I want to do right now. I want to try other therapies first. The brace has proven not to work for his curves and are progressing. I went looking for other treatments. I found a care center located in Oklahoma City, that treats patients with scoliosis and they are having great results with not only preventing curves from getting worse but with getting the curve straighter and at a lower degree and continuing to hold past skeletal maturity studies 15 years out. They also only use MRI which means no radiation, and if wondering yes he has had a full MRI of his spine. How can I not give this a chance and him the opportunity to avoid surgery possibly. The medical insurance company doesn’t want to pay for non-surgical scoliosis treatment. I will have to pay for the medical treatment out of pocket which will get expensive but to prevent surgery it will be worth every penny. I have spoken to many parents that have told me they would have done anything to avoid the surgery and I want to give Cannon every opportunity.

Cannon’s therapy will be M-F from 8am until 4pm. Once his initial therapy for 2 weeks is over he will come home with the necessary equipment and 6 days a week he will do between 2-3 hours of therapy at home. Cannon has had to give up some of his sports for now and make scoliosis priority because we only have a short window to make huge progress to be successful. After being home for 10-12 weeks we will travel back to Oklahoma City for another week of intense therapy, this will cost another $5,000 plus traveling expenses. Then every 3 months for the next 7-8 years we will go for a week therapy, each time it will cost another $5,000 for the therapy, plus the 6-7 braces he will have to get over the next 7 years. (By the time we finish the program this will cost us somewhere around $280,000-$300,000). He will continue this therapy treatment until his body has reached full growth/skeletal maturity. They measure this growth on a Riser scale of 0-5. Right now Cannon is a 0, so we have a long way to go and he has a lot of growing still to do. He has a lot of growth left which also means if we don’t get this treatment as soon as possible Cannons curves will get worse. As the curves get worse so do the twists and that will start to impact his lungs and heart. Thank you for any help you are able to give and please share his GoFundMe. My other goal is I want to bring awareness to this for other children with scoliosis that there are other options out there for them! I will post updates and pictures as he tackles the program for the next several years and updates and the progression he is making. We have seen the success this program has given other children and we are hopeful we will do the same for Cannon.

Cannon's first brace at 5 years old.

This is Cannon's most recent MRI at 10 year old. This image shows just how severe his scoliosis is with a thoracic curve at 43 degrees and lumber curve at 22 degrees. He works very hard to correct his spine but still has a ways to go. This fundraiser will hopefully make sure he can continue this therapy and reach his goal.

Spinal weighted therapy to help correct posture. He has to use this and balance 5 minutes. He has to work up to 20 minutes a day and keep certain positions. They set a timer that will beeps to let him know when he can get out of corrective position.

This is Cannon's traction chair that he has to do two times a day for 21 minutes. This chair is helping to correct his spinal rotation and reducing the rib hump in his back. The rib hump is something scoliosis patients develop from twisting of the spine. Cherie has had to purchase these devices so he can use them daily.

This is Cannon's nerve stretching table to stretch his spinal cord. His spinal cord is very tight and he is at a 40 degree angle when he lifts his leg straight up when he stretches on it. The goal is for Cannon to be able to get to 90 degrees and hopefully one day get to 100-110 degrees. Cannon has to do this exercise 45 minutes a day, 11 rounds stretching each leg one at a time and holding it for 2 minutes each. It is a lot of dedication on both Cherie and Cannon to correct his scoliosis.

Cannon's second brace at 8 years old.

Cannon and Sunny! When they go to Oklahoma they make sure to stop by the animal shelter and visit with him.

Sunny is always happy to see his buddy Cannon.

This is Cannon's fourth brace at 10 years old. This is a new type of brace called Silicon Valley Brace that we purchased doing the treatment plan in Oklahoma.