Hi! My name is Lindsay and I am thirteen years old and in the eighth grade. I love horses & horseback riding, reading, writing, and music.

The Brace
It was in sixth grade when I was eleven years old that I learned about scoliosis, and more importantly the fact that I had the disease. Scoliosis checks were being given out by the school nurse right before school ended for summer in June 2002. The nurse found only a subtle clue of scoliosis, but I was still sent to my family physician for a closer look and eventually an orthopedic doctor.

After numerous xrays (something that you become entirely familiar with if you deal with scoliosis) the doctor recommended a Boston brace; my two curves were in their 20s, and expected to grow worse. I was devastated; I was very self-conscious back then, and incredibly angry that I had to be wearing a brace in my first year of middle school.

Being fitted for the brace wasn’t painful, but the first time I wore the brace in September of 2002 wasn’t pleasant at all. It felt very tight, and I was sure I couldn’t adjust to it. Eventually I got used to it though, and started wearing it about twenty hours a day. I only wore it to school two days a week. The other three were days that I had to change in the locker room for gym, and I told myself that I couldn’t deal with the stares and questions about my brace.

I hated the brace, though I still wore it as much as I could for the first few months. The first few doctor visits looked promising; my curves increased a small amount through the seventh grade, and it looked like the brace was doing its job fairly well.

In 2003, things began to take a turn for the worse. My thoracic curve edged its way up to 40 degrees, and my lumbar curve had also been measured at around 30 degrees. A new brace was made for me in November ‘03, and the doctor hoped to see more correction in it. When they say “more correction”, they mean less breathing room! The new Boston brace was MUCH tighter than my last, and it took a while to adjust to it. Another xray revealed that the brace wasn’t helping as much as it should be.

This was about when surgery started to be discussed. We scheduled an appointment with my second doctor (I’ve switched doctors twice in my experience with scoliosis) to talk about the fusion. In my situation, with curves at 44* and 32*, it seemed the best path to take. Research had shown that high curves increase over your entire life, and I didn’t want to have to get a more serious surgery if I continued with the brace, which hadn’t been preventing my curves from worsening in the first place.

After some research on different hospitals, my parents switched me to another doctor. He would be performing my surgery. We spoke with him a bit about the operation in March ‘04, and scheduled my posterior spinal fusion for May 18, 2004. My thoracic curve (44*) was to be corrected to less than 10*. My lumbar curve was not being fused, but it was expected to improve because of my other curve’s correction.

As of this writing, my surgery is in less than two months. I’m definitely nervous, but a little excited too. I’m glad that surgery is available as an option, but proud of myself for sticking with the brace. It’s amazing to look back and see that I’ve been wearing it for a year and a half; the time passed quickly!

My brace has helped a lot though, despite some of the anger it brought. It’s made me realize who I am, and who I want to be. A few years ago I was the sort of girl you might find who would judge people by appearance (sometimes without even knowing it!) and other useless facts concerning that person. I think wearing this brace has definitely shown me that what’s on the outside doesn’t count for anything. I didn’t want people to judge me by the brace that I wore, and that helped me understand that I shouldn’t be evaluating other people by their appearance or anything else that doesn’t relate to who they are on the inside.

Believe me, after I realized this, I had a lot more friends Even if bracing does seem like the worst thing in the world, it’s something to be proud of yourself for sticking with. It made me a much stronger person, and I’m actually glad that I went through the experience, even if it didn’t have the greatest success in terms of correcting my scoliosis.

After my surgery, I’ll update this story. If you have any questions, you can talk to me on the SpineKIDS messageboards (I’m daysong!)

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