Hi, my name is Lauren and I am 13 years old. I had a posterior spinal fusion and April 2005. This is my story:

Diagnosis
When I was 6 years old, I went to my family doctor for a regular physical. She did a scoliosis check and discovered that I had scoliosis. At that point, I had no clue what she meant when she said "scoliosis". "What in the world is scoliosis?" I wondered. I was referred to a hospital to have x-rays of my spine.

The day of the x-rays approached and I got a little nervous. I was scared that the x-rays were going to hurt. I wasn't exactly sure what an x-ray was. But once I got into the x-ray room, it was explained to me what it was. I was happy that they didn't hurt. Afterwards I met with my doctor who would later become my surgeon. I had two 23 degree curves. We decided to watch what the curve would do. I didn't go to any appointments after that for about 5 years, until one day, when I was 11; my mom noticed my back looked a lot worse. We got an appointment booked at the hospital.

The Brace
As the day approached, I did some research about scoliosis. I found out the different treatment methods, and some of the things I read made me a little nervous. The day of my hospital visit, I was pretty scared. I got my x-rays taken then waited to see my doctor. When my name was called, I went to an examination room and waited some more. I was told my curves were 54 and 45 degrees. I cried. My doctor told me I could have surgery, or I could try a brace. I decided that I would try a brace.

I went down to orthotics and met with my orthotist. My mom and I went back to the plaster room. I had to put on two of these things that looked like huge socks. Then, I laid down on the table. She took rolls of plaster and put them in water and covered me. It was really cold!! When the front side of me dried, it got really hot. Then I was flipped over and she did my back. It started feeling a little hard to breathe and I was getting really hot. I told the orthotist that I felt like a mummy. Soon it was dry and she cut me out of it. We booked an appointment in a month to pick up my brace.

When we went to pick up the brace, I wasn't happy. I didn't want a brace but I knew I had to do something about my scoliosis. We went to orthotics and waited until my orthotist came. We went back to a room where my brace was. I walked in and looked at it. It was huge and I wondered how I would ever get into it. My orthotist assured me that it would be smaller once we cut it down to my size.

She helped me put it on for the first time and it was not pleasant. I was very uncomfortable and I wondered how I was ever going to wear it 23 hours a day. She cut off some of the uncomfortable parts and then we put the brace in a bag and went home.

The next day I worked on wearing the brace. It took me about a month to get used to it The first time I had to wear it to school, I was afraid everyone was going to make fun of me. But no one did, most people were interested in what it was. After everyone knew what it was, I never heard anything else about my brace.

I went to my one month brace check-up. It had brought both my curves down 10 degrees. My doctor was happy with that, but my orthotist thought I could get better correction if the pads in the brace were thicker. So, I got thicker pads but in the brace. I was used to wearing the brace at this point so it felt a lot different when I put it on. After about an hour with the new pads, I was crying because it hurt. I never fully got used to those pads because that was when I started cutting down on the time in my brace. At one point I decided I'd rather have surgery than go through 2 years of bracing.

When I went to the hospital for my 6 month brace check-up, I hadn't been wearing my brace at all for about a month. I had my x-rays done and I knew my curve had gotten worse. We met with my doctor and my curves had progressed to 65 and 54 degree curves. I told my doctor that I wanted surgery. He explained to me what it was about and a nurse came and talked to me and my parents. I was put on the surgery waiting list.

Preparing for Surgery
When my mom called the hospital for my surgery date we were told it would be April 19, 2005. We didn't hear anything appointment wise for a while so in March my mom called the hospital. My surgery was pushed back until April 26, 2005. That was exactly one week longer. I was a little upset about that because I just wanted to get it over with. My mom booked an appointment for autologous blood donation and my pre-op. The date was April 7, 2005. I was a bit nervous about that.

The day came and my mom and I went to the hospital. I met the lady that would take my blood. She put a numbing cream on my hand so she could put an IV in so I wouldn't get dehydrated during the blood donation. She also put a numbing patch where the blood donation site was. I walked around with my mom for 20 minutes while the cream worked on my hand. We went back and she put the IV in which didn't hurt. Then I went and had x-rays done.

I had to have 4 x-rays done. One standing straight, one standing to the side and two bending. That took about half an hour because I had to wait to make sure that all of them turned out. Then I went upstairs and waited to have my evoked potential (EP) An evoked potential is when they shock your ankles which send waves up your spinal cord. They monitor this during surgery to make sure nothing is wrong with the spinal cord.

I put on a hospital gown and laid down on the bed. The lady put lots of wires onto me and then put something on my ankle. She plugged the wires into the computer and the thing on my ankle kind of shocked it. I was told to close my eyes and not move. It hurt a bit, so I was glad when it was over.

My mom and I went back downstairs to do my blood donation. We went in the room and I sat in the chair. The lady took the numbing patch off my arm. She hooked the IV fluid to my IV and then stuck the needle in. I laughed because it didn't hurt at all! I donated 2 units in 15 minutes. I started feeling pretty tired afterward.

On the day before my surgery, my friends were more upset than I was! They were almost crying, and I was sitting there smiling!! They all thought I was crazy. But, later that night I got really scared and cried. I cleaned my back with the little sponge and tried to get some sleep. I would have to get up at 4:00am the next day so I could be at the hospital by 6am.

Day of Surgery
April 26, 2005, I woke up at 4am and cleaned my back again with a sponge. Then, I had some water because that would be the last time I was allowed to drink anything before my surgery. I put my hair in two braids so it wouldn't get too knotted while I couldn't brush my hair. I made sure I had everything packed for the hospital, said bye to my cat, grabbed a teddy bear and we were on our way to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital it was 5:50am. We went upstairs to the admitting place and were admitted. I put on a hospital gown and hospital pants and my mom and I talked with someone who had to ask us some questions. Then I got my hospital bracelet and they put one around my teddy bears neck too. I sat with my parents in the admitting place with 3 other kids who were having surgery that day. A lady came and I went into room to get a blood test which didn't hurt. Then I went back to waiting. My surgery was to begin at 8am and at 7:35am a man came and took me and the other kids and our parents to the operating room waiting room. I was getting pretty scared then. We waited there for a bit and then a nurse and my anaesthetist came and talked to me. Then my surgeon. Then they told me it was time to go to the operating room. I said goodbye to my parents which was really hard and walked to the operating room with the nurse. When we got there, music was playing and that was kind of relaxing. I got up on the operating table and they put some wires on my chest. Then they asked if I wanted laughing gas while the IV went in, since I'd requested to be put out by IV. A black mask was put over my nose and mouth. I didn't think anything was coming out because it wasn't making me feel funny or anything but then I started to feel weird and a little dizzy. My IV was put in which felt just like a little pinch. It wasn't anything bad. They started putting the anaesthetic in little by little and they kept talking to me. After that, I don't remember anything else from the operating room.

Recovery
I woke up 8 hours later. I was very tired and confused as to where I was. I thought I was still looking up at the operating room ceiling until a nurse looked down at my bed said hello to me, told me my surgery was over and to rate my pain. I rated it a 6 and they gave me my PCA pump. I must have kept falling asleep and waking up because all of a sudden my parents were standing over my bed. I was in the recovery room for 3 hours before being moved to a constant observation room.

Once I got there, I was allowed to have some ice chips. They tasted so good because I was so thirsty! Then they were making sure that I had feeling in my legs and stuff. Then I was turned over. I slept through most of the night but I was turned every 2 hours and my vitals were checked every half hour that night.

The next morning I was moved to my private room. I slept through pretty much the whole day. The next day I got up out of bed for the first time. I sat at the side of my bed, and walked over to a chair. I felt really dizzy. On Saturday I went on a longer walk, to the nurse's station. Then the next day I walked around the ward. I had my morphine pump unhooked on Sunday and my IV was taken out on Monday. It felt much better to have nothing hooked to me anymore. I ate solid food other than jello on Monday night but I threw up (yuck!) On Tuesday, exactly one week after my surgery, I was discharged form the hospital. The ride home wasn't too bad. It felt so much better to be home again.

Everyday I progressed and felt better. By 3 weeks post-op I was feeling much better with hardly any pain at all. At 4 weeks post-op, my pain was completely gone and I returned to school for half days. At 6 weeks post-op, I returned full days and had no problems with pain.

At the time of writing this, I am 8 weeks post-op and I feel great!! I only feel slight pain when it rains. My curves went from in the 80's and 70's to 15 and 0 degrees! I am now allowed to ride my bike on smooth areas and swim. I don't regret having this surgery!

If you have any questions, you can write to me on the SpineKIDS message boards, username ILoveAnimals12.

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