Hi I’m Kolleen, I’m 13 and when I was 12 I was diagnosed with Scoliosis. I had gone to my yearly physical and my doctor had me do the bend and touch your toes test. She didn’t see anything. She had me go to an Orthopedic Specialist because my feet are “externally rotated”. When I went to see Dr. Murphy-Zane 2 weeks after the physical and I had my first x-rays ever.

Down in the x-ray room I had I think 2 X-rays done, one of my hands and one of my back. The films got developed and the X-Ray tech was looking at them at an angle I could see. My back looked like an “S”. So I got dressed and the tech gave my mom the films. On the way up to Dr. Murphy-Zane’s office I said to my mom “They are really bad. My back looks like a piece of spaghetti.”

We got back up to the doctor’s office and my mom saw them. Her face fell when she saw them. It turns out my curves were 30* and 27*.Dr. Murphy-Zane and my mom talked for a little while and then this guy Rusty came into the room. Dr. MZ told me I needed to get a brace and that Rusty was going to be my “Brace Guy” So I had to put on a “body sock” and have nothing else on and Rusty took a lot of measurements. Then he brought me to a computer and showed me a bunch of designs. He said I could pick one to have on my brace. I picked a baseball.

A couple weeks later Rusty called and said we could pick up my brace in a couple days. So on October 18, 2006 I got out of school early and me my mom and my nana went into Boston to get my Boston Brace. When Rusty brought it in I was surprised. It was so much smaller than I thought it would be. When my school had showed us a movie about Scoliosis the only braces they showed were HUGE! They were the kind that went up around the neck and made it really obvious that you were wearing it. My brace was kind of small, I mean it was still big but it was smaller than I thought it would be. So I pulled it on and Rusty pulled it. I thought I was going to faint when Rusty pulled it!! It was soooo tight! Rusty went and adjusted some stuff and came back and I tried it on, that happened about 3 times.

Then we went with Rusty another guy and Rusty’s daughter to the hospital part of the building and I got X-Rays in and out of the brace. Then we finally got to go home. My mom made another appointment for 2 weeks to make sure everything was going good. When we got home my Nana gave me 4 Webkinz and my uncle gave me a Nintendo DS as “encouragement gifts”.

Rusty had marked my brace straps to where I had to pull it to and then the mark that I should be able to pull it to in a month. By the 5th day in the brace I had surpassed the month goal.

I started wearing it 22/7 after about a week. So that means I had to wear it to school. Most kids didn’t notice I had it on in till I took it off one day after about 2 weeks because it got annoying. Some people thought it was cool and one of my friends Olivia named it EggBert… I don’t know why but she did.

I remember the first thing someone said about Scoliosis after I found out I had it. I was in homeroom and they said on the morning news that Scoliosis screenings would be that week in gym. A kid in my homeroom bent his shoulders so one was higher than the other and was like “Look I’m a Scoliosis freak”. A couple kids in my homeroom knew I had the brace but he didn’t. When I didn’t laugh he was like “What?”. I said to him “That joke would be funny, if I wasn’t wearing a Back Brace for Scoliosis right now”. He was like “Oh I… I didn’t know”. I just said “Well you should crack jokes about medical problems” and I walked away.

I went back to my brace doctor on November 30, 2007. My curves were 16* and 17* the last time I went to see Dr. Brawn. I got more x-rays done. My bottom curve stayed at 16* but my top curve went up to 20*. Dr. Brawn said that wasn’t bad but that I should continue wearing my brace at night for 6 months.

I was so disappointed! I had been counting down to when I went back and I told all my friends I would probably be bringing in my brace to school on the following Monday so they could sign it. I did some quick math in my head and figured out that 6 months from November would be in May. That made me a little happy because at my school the 8th graders get to go to Washington D.C. in June, so I was happy I wouldn’t have EggBert for the trip. I still hate wearing the brace even when it is just going to bed but I figured if it helps my back then I will deal with it!

I go back to the doctor on Friday May 9, 2008 so I will update within a couple days after that!

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