It was the summer
after fifth grade when I came down with my standard, once-a-year case of
nasty bronchitis. My mom took me to the doctor, who ran a lung X-ray to
confirm it before prescribing me antibiotics.
I remember thinking, "And this is just the beginning. I'm going to feel like this every day."
"Well, you do have bronchitis," the doctor said, "but you also have a pretty serious case of scoliosis." He held up the X-ray to show me an image of my spine, which was visibly crooked. I was 10 years old. Needless to say it was not the diagnosis I was expecting that day.
Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis
is a curvature of the spine that appears in late childhood or early
adolescence. It's most common in young women, and children are at risk
for a worsening curvature as they grow.
Although
many schools conduct screenings to try to catch students' scoliosis
early, mine wasn't one of them. Had anyone ever asked me to bend and
touch my toes, they would've noticed that I had developed a significant
hunch on the right side of my back.
The
initial curve of my spine was significant enough that my doctor
immediately referred me to an orthopedist, who said I'd need to start
wearing a back brace right away.
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