Hi, my name is Krista and I am 13 years old. I'm a softball player and a very active girl.

I found out I had scoliosis last year when they did a screening for scoliosis in 6th grade. I really knew nothing about it and I was taken by surprise when I found out I had it. The lady who checked me said i had a 15 degree curve and that all I needed to do was a little exercise and that I would be just fine.

My mom, being a nurse, wanted to just make sure that it wasn't worse. She took me to the doctors, they took X-Rays, and told me I had about a 25 and 30 degree curves. Since I was still growing I would need to wear a brace. I didn't really mind at frist until I found out I had to wear it 16 hours a day.

I got my brace on January 16, 2005. Having to wear the brace was the hardest thing I think I ever had to do. I only told my close friends about it, I wore it to school sometimes. I wore big tee-shirt and it was very uncomfortable. I wore that brace for about 9 months. I went back for a regular check up to see how my back was and I found out it was getting worse. The bottom half of my spine was getting a lot worse then the top part. So I was fitted for a new brace called a "bending brace". It bent with my body near my ribs, I only had to wear it at night. I wore the bending brace for about 6 months. That brace didn't work either.

By the time of February 2006 my curves had gotten a lot worse, they were around 40 and 45 degrees. By then it was time for surgery. I took this very hard seeing that I never have had a operation in my life before.

On May 1, 2006 I had my spinal surgery done. The operation lasted 8 hours. I don't remember alot of the first couple of days. I remember seeing my parents and brother, I remember my nurses, and I remember being in a lot of pain. I was in the Intensive Care Unit for 3 days, after I.C.U i was put into a regular room. That night was the hardest night. I had hardly any morphine so I wasn't very "out of it" anymore. The pain became much stronger and I remember every single thing from that night. I wasn't able to find a comfortable postion and I kept begging for more medicine.

The doctors said I would be in the hospital for a week...I left in 4 days. I went home and all I really wanted to do was sleep. I slept a lot during the day and never could sleep at night. Besides the pain the hardest thing for me was trying to eat. I had never wanted to eat anything and everything that I did eat, I threw up. It took me a week and a half to realize I needed to eat something or I would end up back in the hospital. I started eating more and more everyday. By the 2nd week I was taking walks with my mom, talking on the computer for a little with my friends, and visiting with people.

The doctors said I would go back to school in 6 weeks, I went back in 3. My mom talked to the people that were going to homeschool me and they said out of all the people they ever homeschooled that had my type of surgery, I was one of the few that recovered to quickly.

It has been about 2 months since my surgery and everything is back to normal for me. I go to school, I go to the mall and movies, and swim. The only things that are different is I can't do anything phyisical...like softball or running around. Also I do have a large scar up my whole back, which will fade. From time to time my back will hurt a little, but nothing some Tylenol can't fix.

In the end I am SO glad I had this operation. My back didn't look right before my surgery and now i have a normal back...unless you look at my X-rays and see two medal rods and some screws. I came on SpineKids.com before my surgery and a lot of peoples stories helped me out a lot...and I am hoping this will help out a lot of people. It's okay to be scared, but a couple weeks of pain was worth it to me because now I don't have to face the pain when I am older.

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