Hi! I'm Rachel, and I'm 13 years old.

Well, it all started in sixth grade, which was my 2003/2004 year. A year back, my old doctor went out of practice and I didn't go to a doctor for a whole year, because my parents didn't think it necessary; everything seemed alright. When I finally DID go to a doctor, everything was running smoothly, until she had me bend down and touch my toes. Back then, I had no idea what Scoliosis was, so when my new doctor started talking about it, I was utterly confused. I can't really remember that well what exactly happened then, but the next thing I knew my parents were really scared and we were at a hospital seeing a specialist. Since I started school a year earlier than everyone else my age, I was only about 10 or 11 years old. I had an x-ray taken, my first x-ray for my back, and they knew something was wrong. My Scoliosis had started a while ago, but because I hadn't been to the doctor, no one noticed. Finally my back doctor explained to me exactly what it was, and that I had Idiopathic Scoliosis, which meant they didn't know exactly where I got it from; and to paint a picture for you, my spine basically looked like a stretched out backwards "S". To a young kid, to whom this is all a new, weird thing, I was pretty scared. "How could this happen to ME? What did I do wrong? What did I do to deserve THIS?", all ran through my head one after another. My curve was already in the twenties, I forget exactly what, but I definitely needed bracing.

The next thing I know, I was sitting in the waiting room of yet another doctor's office. Now, "The Brace Guy", which I called him. He actually made braces for a lot of different problems of the body, and he had posters of different things all over the rooms. He was really nice and funny, and I really liked him. At the next visit, I was fitted for a brace. As from what I learned later on [I'll get to what I mean later], everyone has a different bracing procedure. Mine was really cool. I was told to wear a swimsuit that day, and when I got there The Brace Guy put a gauze body sock over me, with little holes cut out for my head and arms. The little kid I was, I thought I was a famous Hollywood celebrity wearing a dress. Yeah, I know, funny. Then came the weird part. He started dipping these..like.. plastic things that he was ripping out of little packages [kind of like giant band-aides] and placing them on my body; and they were COLD at first. after he made a layer on me, I was told to lay on the table and he put more layers on me. Now, they started warming up, which was actually them getting hard. They were some kind of plaster. After they dried for what seemed like forever, my doctor put a rubber tube strand thing down the front of my body under the mold, where he was going to cut it open with a CHAIN SAW. At first I was like "Uh.. you're kidding.. right?", but he was actually being serious. He warned me it was going to tickle like crazy, but i didn't believe him. I thought I was going to die! Then he started cutting down the rubber and it DID tickle like no other. I burst out laughing. In no time, it was done. My brace had been molded.

We left that doctor and headed home. In about a week or two, I don't remember exactly what, we headed back there, and he had my brace all done. I had to wear a night brace, for 10 hours each night. All I know is that I was so thankful I didn't have to wear a day brace. This brace had a bunch of padding in random areas around my hips, and it was so weird putting it on. I felt like I was being suffocated, and I couldn't move. At all. I thought this is what the next few years of my life was going to be like. Horrible. It Velcro-d in the front on three things, and The Brace Guy put little dashes on it instructing me where to pull it that tight. To add to it all, my left leg was about a centimeter shorter than my right leg, which was one of the causes of my Scoliosis, because it made my hips uneven. To help this, I was given this snazzy blue lift that my parents Velcro-d to my shoes in the heel part. I was scared to death that someone was going to see my left shoe when I didn't have my foot in it and notice the bright blue lift, seeing that something was wrong. Back then, I was really, I mean really, insecure about my condition. I thought to myself, "Well, this is going to be one long ride."

That night was horrible. It was my first time wearing the brace, and I just could not fall asleep. My parents both helped me put it on, and back then, it was a fiasco trying to put it on on the right spot, so that the grooves all aligned. It was very, very uncomfortable, and I could not move my legs for ANYTHING. The brace ran up under my arms then, and it was digging into my skin. It was horrible, and I almost started crying. I don't think I got any sleep that night.

The next few nights were equally as bad, but it started getting better and better. I had to wear white shirts to bed, and my mom went out and bought those Hanes undershirts that guys wear. It was really weird at first, but they grew on me. I was told to wear these because my doctor was afraid that if I wore tank tops then I'd get horrible marks from where the brace would rub my skin raw, and if I wore colored things, and it was really hot, then the dye would run into my skin. I thought that was just hilarious- a dyed kid.

The next doctor visits were spread about within like, 3 or 4 months apart from each other, and I had an x-ray before every doctor visit. The x-ray was the same thing every time, but the first x-ray with the brace was horrible. I was still not very mobile in it, and they had me lay on this table and take x-rays there. I couldn't move, and it was just really, really bad. The next few doctor visits I was told to stand up against a big white box, nose to it, hold my breath, let it out, they'd snap the picture, and then I was free to go. Plain and simple. Very easy. It became a custom. For a little while my curve was ok, but then it started getting up into the 30's. Every time we'd go to the doctor it would be worse, which just sent my parents and me into nervous meltdowns.

By then, it was seventh grade. I was 11 until September, when i turned the big 1-2, making me one of the youngest kids in my grade, which I found awesome. It was also my first year in the gifted language arts program, in which we learned ninth grade things. I had been wearing the brace for roughly a year, and by now I was very, very accustomed to it. I could walk around in it, sit in a chair, but only for a little bit of time, because on one side it went down past my butt, so sitting wasn't that much of an option. Haha. I wore it faithfully, every single night, excluding some sleepovers with lots of girls that didn't know. Because I had been growing a lot, I was also losing a lot of weight, but basically just baby fat. I had to have my brace shaved down a lot of times because I would always pull it as tight as it could go, which, as I was told, you're not supposed to do. But every time we went back to the hospital, things just seemed to get worse by about 1 or 2 degrees. I couldn't figure out what was going on, because I had been SO good with the brace. Another awkward part of seventh grade was when they would check us for Scoliosis in gym. I would always tell the gym teacher that I had already been checked and turned out fine [oh, what a lie] and then he sent me to the other gym class [there was usually 3 going on at once]. No one ever really questioned it, but if they did ask, I'd just simply say "I was already checked and I'm perfectly fine." But, the teachers ALSO sent home letters to everyone in sixth and seventh grade, nearing the end of the year, when in sixth, I already knew I have Scoliosis. One of the times in sixth grade, I remember we were reading it out loud as a class, and some of the guys were laughing, probably because they had never heard of it and thought it was the funniest thing in the world. As soon as they found out exactly WHAT it was, they shut up =]. Some of the kids found it cool, and I just played along like I had no idea what it was, when I REALLY felt like just crying. THEN they had us take home one of those things your parents have to sign, saying if you've been checked for it, or have it and is being treated. When I had to mark "have it & treated" and turn it in in a big pile that everyone could see, I was freaked out. Luckily, no one saw. Maybe they did, and just didn't say anything. I don't think someone would confront you over it just trying to be mean. This thing happened a few times, and it was like a disaster every time.

Now the weird thing happened. My best friend, Jenny, who I had met when she moved into a house about a 2 minute walk from my house. We met for the first time halfway through our fourth grade year on the school bus. We had become really close and great friends. One day on one of our most famous dog walks [which we ALWAYS went on, so much fun!], she told me something that changed my life. She was basically the only friend that knew about my Scoliosis, and that day she told me she had been diagnosed too. It was the WEIRDEST thing to happen. I couldn't believe my ears! My parents were very, very shocked too! For awhile her Scoliosis was in the teens so no brace was needed, but soon she did need one. I was pretty jealous of hers, because she actually got a design on it. Purple with like, spray painted colors. It was pretty rad if you ask me =]. Mine was the plain cream colored. [Jenny's was a night brace too.] When I talked to her about how they made her brace, she was actually just measured and there was like, no mold involved! Hah, I think she was cheated out of being cut out of the mold and being tickled to death =P.

Now we started eighth grade, our last year in middle school, and my back just seemed to be getting worse. I was wearing the brace for about 9, or even 8 hours a night, but I never missed a night. The homework was loaded, because I was in the more advanced classes, and I was at the computer for a long time at night, and also my friends and I's main way of communicating is through the Internet.

I have to say eighth grade was the most amazing grade of my life. I became really, really close with my best friend Allison, who ended up being my main support for the rest of my story. I also became closer friends with people I know that are a year ahead of me. Everything was going great. I was getting good grades, getting along with kids, and the brace was working out fine. It was seriously like I attached to it. I've read stories on SpineKids and a lot of the kids were like "Oh, I hated my brace. I never wore it", but I actually began to LIKE wearing it. Creepy, huh? Haha. As i was saying, it like, grew on me, and my friends really didn't care at all. If anything, they were interested in knowing as much as possible about it so they could understand. It meant a lot to me. A lot. Especially Allison. She learned about it and understood everything I said, and if I ever needed to talk, she was right there with open ears. Jenny and I also grew closer because of our Scoliosis, and our braces. At sleepovers, we would walk around the houses with our braces on and not care what anyone thought. It was definitely just a self esteem booster. It was amazing.

By March, 06, I was 13, ending eighth grade, and also middle school. I had a doctor appointment [which Allison remembered the month of it, when even I had forgot.] There, the doctor said that I had curves of 38 degrees, and they started talking about surgery at 40 degrees. That's only two degrees, and I started panicking. I wore my brace a lot, and finally eighth grade ended. Here was summer!!!

Today, July 26, 2006, I had a doctor appointment. I was REALLY afraid because lately I've been having a lot of back pain. Also, if I didn't wear the lift [which I usually ALWAYS wore it, I loved wearing it in my Converse and black & pink checkered Vans], then my hips would hurt. All in all, I think Allison is the one that it hit the hardest. She had been having literal panic attacks for a few weeks, while everyone else told me that they had faith that nothing was going to go wrong. I was almost dead set on the thought I was going to have surgery. Today, I got even a BIGGER surprise! I was told that I'm all done growing, and my curves went down to 36 degrees. NO MORE BRACE! It was so funny that today my doctor told me that, because a few weeks ago Jenny and I were talking about when we finally were done growing, what it would be like to not wear our braces. We started making jokes and calling them "our turtle shells". She always had such a great outlook on it =]. I have to say it's going to be really, really weird, not wearing the brace. Like I said before, it grew on me. I LOVE that thing. It represents such an interesting time period in my life. For the next four months I'm supposed to wean myself from wearing the brace, and for the two months after that, I was told not to wear it at all. Sixth months from now I'm going to see my doctor to see what happened, but everything is supposed to stay the same, and at the most, go back to 38 degrees.

I also got a lot closer to my best guy friend, Elliott. A few days ago we were talking and he told me that he used to have Scoliosis as a little kid, and had to wear a night brace, but his got better on it's own. I was shocked! He had no idea that I had Scoliosis, and when I told him, he thought I was making it up. Way back in sixth grade, I believed I was like, the ONLY kid to have this, but now it's really weird that one of my closest friends is going through what I went through, and one of them previously went through the same thing. I was also very scared to tell some people, but if you are scared like I was, just tell the people that you really trust, if you want to tell anyone at all.

I had a really great bracing experience, and kids, just never give up. I look forward to four great years in high school, and I'm currently apart of my school's marching band, which has like, 300 kids in it! We're huge =]. I might write in sixth months to tell you guys what exactly is going on.

All in all, my Scoliosis taught me so much, and I ended up being a better person. It may seem horrible at first, but just be faithful with your brace. I know for day braces it's harder, but if someone makes fun of you for it, then you're the better person. If they need to feel better for themselves by hurting someone else, then they're low. My friends really helped me through everything, and I have no idea what I would have done if they weren't there for me. I love them so much. I have faith in all of you guys, and good luck =].

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