My Scoliosis Story

Hello my name is Emma and this is my Scoliosis story. I was diagnosed with Scoliosis at the age of 8. When I got first diagnosed with Scoliosis I went to get my first x-ray. The results were that my curves were at 4, 28, and 15. Those are pretty big curves to just have been diagnosed. I was immediately put into a Boston Brace. A back brace is essentially a hard plastic (and very uncomfortable) brace that goes around my torso. It does have to be tightened a lot for the brace to actually work. The back brace is designed to hold your curves in place so they do not get worse. You have to wear the brace for 20 hours a day. That only gives you 4 hours each day with it off. That's not a lot especially because I had to use that time for gym class, showers, and just living a normal 8 year old life! I wore the Boston brace for about a year but I really couldn't handle it anymore. So after that I went to a local children's hospital for my back. Immediately they told me I needed spinal fusion surgery. Spinal fusion surgery is the most popular surgery for Scoliosis, it's been around for a very long time. However spinal fusion just wasn't the best option for me. I was still very young with a lot of growing left. Spinal fusion pretty much makes you less flexible and you wouldn't be able to grow as much with fusion. It also comes with many complications. But we did a lot of research and we found a surgery that is called VBT. It is around 10 years old and only a number of doctors do it worldwide. VBT is most common for kids/teens that still have a lot of growing left. VBT is designed to straighten your spine as you grow. It only uses a tether and screws. The tether pulls your spine as you grow to make it straighter. However like I said, not many doctors do VBT. So where I am, we didn't have anywhere close to go. But we did find a hospital 4 hours away that does it. Shriners Hospitals For Children In Philadelphia. So we started going there every year so just in case I did need surgery, we would already be ready for VBT instead of Fusion. At this time I was going to Physical Therapy every week to try to help my spine as much as possible. But as I got older it was just getting worse. I got put in another Boston Brace when I was 12. I wore it for about a month but it was really hard for me. I didn't wear the brace as much as I should of. A little while after that I started Schroth therapy. Schroth is Scoliosis specific exercises. I went once a week, and I had to do it everyday for over an hour. It becomes tiring after awhile
and you just don't want to do it. At my appointment at Shriners in June, 2018 they told me it would be the best option to have VBT right now. I didn't really have an option because you have to follow very strict requirements to have VBT. I was right at the requirements but if I had waited any longer, I probably wouldn't of had the right requirements. We scheduled the surgery for October 16th, 2018. When the day came, I was super nervous. But the surgery went wonderful with no complications at all!! It was such a relief to get it over with. Now I am 10 months post op and I am doing wonderful! My curves before surgery were 12, 60, and 40. Now they are down to 5, 36, and 32! However they will get even better as I grow. Thank you for taking a few minutes to read my story!