Pretty soon, it became common knowledge that I was a scoliosis sufferer. I searched for scoliosis pages on Instagram and to my surprise found a whole community of them. There were people who had had surgery eons ago, people who had just recently had the op, people just about to have the op and people like me, who were newcomers to the Scoliosis World. One page in particular shared anyone and everyone's stories, and reading about it did make the shock less sharp.
But I was still... sceptical. I won't say scared, because I wasn't, but I was nervous. My X-ray was still coming up and I had my holiday between now and then. I should have been looking forward to it and I was, but there was still a tiny niggling doubt.
My holiday came and went. It was amazing, especially because I met my then-new baby cousin, Lucy! Of course, we told her mum, my Dad's cousin (I don't know whether Lucy was listening or sleeping), about my back and she was shocked.
"Really? You can't tell from here!" she said, which was the first time I heard the phrase that it now repeated by almost everyone I tell. But I can. It probably wasn't as pronounced back then (since my curve is slowly getting worse), but even then I could feel the rib hump on the back of a chair, or my vertebrae protruding in bed. I just tried to forget about it and enjoy the summer while it lasted - because we all know summer lasts about two weeks in England. Easier said than done.
YOU ARE READING
A Scoliosis Journey
Non-FictionSince everyone seems to be doing diaries and blogs right now, I'm going to do one too. This is my attempt to raise awareness of my back condition. Also trying to make sense of it in my own mind!
