Running with scoliosis

Good day,

My wife has scoliosis. She had surgery about 20 years ago and a metal rod was put in. Growing up, she was still very active despite having to wear a brace for few years after surgery. She mainly played volley-ball up until 6-7 years ago. Some back pain at time but being younger, she recovered more quickly.

Now that our three little princesses are at the age where she can be more flexible (super mommy always wanted to put the kids time prior of her own personal time), she wants to start running more. Her goal is to run a 10K race in May 2014. She has done 2 x 5k race but her goal was just to finish. She had fun on both races but the last one; she started to complain about her back ‘bothering’ her during the race.

We recently visit a sport MD and was recommended that she go for x-rays to see if everything is ‘still in place’ from her surgery. She also got referred to a PT specializing in scoliosis to help her out. While waiting to get all of these appointments scheduled, I am looking at some way to make it more comfortable for her on her runs. Here are some questions I have:

1. I will bring her to a running store and get her fitted with proper shoes but should I wait until she see the PT first?
2. Should I have her go for a gait analysis to see where she can improve her running posture to prevent any future discomfort?
3. I stumble upon KT Tape. Do they really work? Anyone has experience with it?

If you have scoliosis and you don’t mind sharing your experience to help us out, please let me know. We can take it privately. All I want is ways to make sure she can still pursue her active life with minimal discomfort as much as possible.

Thanks
Minh