Life with scoliosis started with a visit to a walk-in clinic. The doctor spotted a curve in my spine and suggested that my mom have my paediatrician look at it. Upon consulting another doctor, he diagnosed me with scoliosis and referred me to see an orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital.
My surgeon treated me at first with a brace to keep the curve from getting worse. I was very shy and embarrassed to wear it, so my mom came in with me and we told my classmates why I had to wear a brace. They seemed to be quite interested and did not tease me about it. As I got older, the other children began to make comments about the brace. While in grade six, I slowly began to leave my brace at home, and I gave it up completely when I was in grade seven.
The surgeon told me I would need surgery. I was terrified. I knew the decision was still up to me and I was only 12 years old. When the surgeon left the room, I cried and talked to my Mom about what I was going to do. I had never thought I would be making a decision like this. But I accepted the fact that surgery was needed and told the surgeon I would have the operation.
The day of my surgery came and the entire family was awake at 4:00 am. We got dressed and ready to go. On the way to the hospital, we picked up my grandpa and grandma, who were already waiting in the driveway when we pulled in at 5:00 am. We breezed through the morning traffic and got there an hour early.
Once the nurses checked me in, I got into the pajamas that were there for me, and the pants were huge! After getting changed, the nurses weighed me, and I went to sit with my family. I was nervous but I was not going to admit it. Before going to the operating room I hugged my grandparents, sister and brother, and that is when I broke down and cried.
When the surgery was all over, my mom came in and the first thing I said was, "Can I have some water?" My mom laughed and told me that I couldn’t. I must have gone to sleep again because I don’t remember her being there for very long.
My brother was still out in the waiting room. He wanted to see me and know that I was okay, but he was not allowed until the next day. I found out that my chest tube had been clogged and I had a collapsed lung when I was in the Intensive Care Unit. The prolapsed lung made it difficult to breathe and talk.
Going into the surgery, the curves in my spine were 75 degrees in my mid-back and 55 degrees in my lower back. After the surgery, the curves went down to 20 degrees in my mid-back and 17 degrees in my lower back.
Although the surgery went well, I began to experience a lot of back pain about two years later. I had my mom call the surgeon and ask him if this was normal. He said I should come to the hospital for a check-up. The surgeon looked at the X-rays of my back but everything looked normal. He had me do some tests: one was called a gallium scan and the other was called a bone scan. Both of these tests were looking for an infection. Luckily there was no infection.
My options now were to deal with the pain or to have the rods removed to see if that stopped the pain. I decided to try living with the pain at first, but it didn’t stop so I decided to have the rods removed. I had the rods out and am doing really well. I have had pain less frequently since the rods were taken out. The level of pain is also much less. Overall, I am glad that I decided to go ahead with the surgery and remove the rods.
