Before I was even born, both my parents and my doctors knew that I was going to live with scoliosis. On June 24th 1992 when I was born I had a very rare curve of 120 degrees, which was the second worst case of scoliosis known. If I didn't have surgery I would have died, but the surgery was very risky and I had a 50% chance of living through it.

When I was two years old I flew from where I live in Oregon to Gillettes children hospital in Minnesota to have the surgery done. Before I left, my whole church threw me a huge going away party! In Minnesota my surgery lasted about 7 hours, and left a 1 foot scar down my neck and back. After my surgery I had to stay in Minnesota for three weeks before leaving. When I returned home I could not walk, and so I had to scoot around on my head.

From the time I had my surgery until the middle of kindergarten I had to wear a neck brace. It had a metal bar that went up my neck, and a head piece which covered my ear. The purpose of my brace was to keep my neck from tilting.

When I was in third grade my doctor discovered that I had a tethered cord. So the summer going into fourth grade I went to Legacy Emmanuel hospital in Portland for the surgery to fix it. I was not aloud to leave until I ate without throwing up. I had to stay one night in the hospital, but then the next day my teacher came and gave me gummie bears. I ate 4 succesfully and was able to go home.

My scoliosis has resulted in me being VERY short. I am 12 years old and just almost 4 ft tall. Some people stare at me and whisper, but I just think to myself that it is there loss being rude. I can do most things my friends can do except riding the rollercoasters with height limits.

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