When I was seven years old I went to a routine check up at my doctor’s office. During a simple test of my flexibility, my doctor discovered that I have scoliosis. In basic terms, scoliosis is the abnormal curvature of the spine. Little did I know that this diagnosis would send me on a medical journey that would greatly influence my life.
Shortly after my diagnosis, I was sent to a hospital and given x-rays to measure the degree and severity of the scoliosis. At the age of seven I had a twelve degree curve in the top of my spine. Since the curve was so miniscule I was told that there was nothing the doctors could do to stop it, but I would have to get x-rays every six months until I stopped growing to monitor the severity. At this point I was lucky, I wouldn’t have to quit gymnastics or change my life in any significant way.
As I grew, I continued to get the routine x-rays my doctors recommended. At an appointment at the end of sixth grade I was told that my scoliosis had progressed to an at risk degree. My doctor told me that since I still had a lot of growing to do, it would be best if I got a back brace to stop the curve from growing. As a middle schooler you can imagine how I felt.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a back brace, but it’s basically a massive piece of plastic that covers your entire torso. The main job of it is to keep your back from bending, curving, or moving in any significant way. By stopping back movement the brace is supposed to slow how fast the curve progresses, preventing the likelihood of surgery. This meant that sometimes it felt like a hot, restricting, uncomfortable torture device. I had to wear it everyday to school, under my clothes luckily, and to sleep. The only time I got out of it was for gymnastics. This meant that at the heart of middle school, I was stuck in a back brace.
Middle school is typically an awkward time in a kid’s life and being in a back brace made it twice as awkward. Learning to adjust to life in the back brace wasn’t easy. I’d frequently have to change out of my brace at school in order to participate in gym and orchestra. While sitting in class the brace would push on my hips or my arms, causing me to have to leave class to take off the brace or take an advil. On top of being in pain, I also felt like an outsider. I was the only kid in my school to have a back brace and nobody really understood it. I felt uncomfortable and alone for basically the entirety of seventh grade.
Shortly before this school year, my eighth grade year, I was told I could stop wearing my brace. Looking back on my time in my brace, I’ve realized it’s made me stronger. I was given a difficult situation but I learned to preserve through it. When I first got my brace it felt like a death sentence, but it wasn’t really as bad as I thought it would be. I thought that I’d get bullied for my brace, but that that never happened. In fact, almost all of my classmates had no idea I was wearing one. I also didn’t have to quit gymnastics, which I thought I would have to do. Though I had to go through, at times, an unbearable amount of pain, it was all temporary – and probably saved me a lot of pain in the future. Research shows that back braces help significantly reduce the likelihood of future back surgery. Now that my time in my brace has passed, I’ve came to the conclusion that it’s helped me grow as a person and learn valuable lessons.
I never saw anyone with scoliosis in the media and found almost nothing online to read from girls like me with it, that’s why I wrote this. I want all young girls with scoliosis to know that it really does get better. If you’re put in a brace, you’ll be fine, it’ll pass, you’ll be okay.
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