Happy pride month everyone
And it's also scoliosis awareness month
So i thought I'd share my story how it's like having scoliosis
⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️ i am not a professional in medicine. This is just the stuff I've learned based on my experience for the last 4 years.
I was around 14 years old,it was summer and i was trying on different swimsuits etc and my mom was taking out all the winter clothes
While i was trying a swimsuit she noticed my right side of my back at the top had a bump on it
My moms gut told her it was scoliosis though she wasn't extremely sure about it
After the school year started again i went to a doctor and got diagnosed that i had indeed scoliosis and did an x-ray. My spine has curved 45 degrees which might not be really serious to some other people but for my case if it was a few degrees more i would be in for surgery (i was absolutely terrified and didn't do it) thus i was told to wear a medical brace
As considencde might have it my junior highschool principal happened to have a daughter who had scoliosis so she recommended us someone who made medical braces
The doctor was super nice he let me pick out the design i wanted. They scanned me( basically they like 3d?? Scan your body so the brace only fits YOU nobody else) also if anyone wants to wear a brace.. it's like hella expensive so be aware of that
Around December (?) i put the brace on for the first time(you need to wear a sports bra and a cotton t-shirt with no stiches because it could harm your body)i had pressure pillows to specific parts of the brace. The first few days we're absolute hell. I couldn't bend, couldn't do anything nor sit straight my back hurt so bad because of the pressure pillows
Now i would go in between my doctor who checked my scoliosis and how measure my back and if my x-rays to see if any changes have happened while wearing the corset and i would also go to my doctor who made the back brace that was my routine for 4 years. Do x-rays,go to one doctor and then the other
And the brace actually helped! Within a month i went from 45 degrees to 32-33(I don't remember much but it had dropped) and i was extremely happy because it was actually fixing my body
But heres the not so fun part about wearing a back brace.
The summer heat. Oh my god i hated it. Because the brace is made out of plastic it smells and you can't do much to it other than go over it with some wipes and shower daily,i was allowed to take the brace off whenever i would eat or shower. At the beginning i think i was given like 2 hours to have the brace off and as time passed that changed to 4 hours
The good part it's that in winter i wasn't cold because the brace kinda like takes up all the heat your body has and keeps it there so whenever someone touched my brace that shit was hot af
But having scoliosis also affected me alot
I felt like there was something wrong with me that I'm at fault for this happening and that it was my fault that all i did was stay in bed in the summer and not go out much and that i caused this to myself
I didn't like the fact that the brace could be seen through my clothes it made me feel insecure about it since nobody else in my class at the time had scoliosis
Junior highschool genuinely was a bad time for me i absolutely hated it there
I was told that i couldn't gain alot of weight or else the brace would need to change entirely and that i shouldn't grow in height too much either
My scoliosis also was slow to drop after that quick change. My scoliosis eventually dropped to 29-30 degrees to which my doctor said it's in the middle so I'm no longer in danger of surgery but my scoliosis might return when i hit menopause
The bump i had on my right side also eventually got smaller until it couldn't be seen anymore which was also a good thing
Scoliosis is much more common in girls then it is to boys actually
After 4 years of wearing the brace,now having almost 9 x-rays of my back and one brace change due to a bit of height growth i finally took the brace off a few days before i turned 18
July will be my 1 year anniversary of getting rid of the brace
I want people to know that there's nothing wrong with you if you have scoliosis. You can't know whenever you'll get it or not it's not something you can magically predict that it will happen to you and of course nobody has the same curve of the spine,some have less bend to their spine some others have more
Anyone who is wearing a back brace right now just want you to know that keep up and that you are doing amazing and even if your scoliosis doesn't get fixed 100% there's nothing wrong with that either.
