Scoliosis

Diagnosis and Bracing

I was probably 9 or 10 when my doctor discovered it, but it wasn't very bad at the time. I didn't really know what it was, but my back looked fine and it didn't cause me any pain, so I didn't worry about it.

My curvature was small, as was my older sister's. Hers stayed in the teens for a long time, until she was done growing. Now her biggest curve is around 20 degrees, but since she's long done growing there would be no point in a brace. She's pretty much guaranteed never to need the surgery. Lucky.

My curve steadily got worse as I got older. I was 13 and a half when my back doctor suggested a brace. He didn't really give me a choice in the matter. I have an S shaped spine, so I have more than one curve. At the time, they were all in the 20's, maybe early 30's.

When I found out I would need a brace, I was devastated. It was bulky, uncomfortable, earns you plenty of stares, and is Incredibly  hard to sleep in. Thankfully, my doctor said I would only need to wear it 12-16 hours a day, which meant I wouldn't have to wear it to school. Thank God. But I did have to wear it every waking moment that I wasn't on campus.

At first, I was good about wearing it 16 hours a day. But as the months dragged on I became lazy and fed up with the thing, to the point of neglecting it and only getting around 8-10 hours on school days. I got more on the weekends, but still not as much as I was supposed to.

In hindsight, I probably should have worn it more. Maybe that would've slowed down the progression of my curve. Maybe it would've helped. Maybe it would have prevented me from needing surgery. But really, even if I had worn it 24/7, there's only so much a brace can do. My back was getting worse, with or without it.

After about a year and a half of bracing, I went back to my doctor. Good news and bad news.

The good news was that I was done with the brace. The bad news is that my back was much, much worse. My curves were now in the 40's- which was at surgery level.