Back Surgery

When I was 12 years old, I had major back surgery. My mom and I went to the doctors because she saw that my back was not straight and that I had a huge bump at around age 9. When we got to the doctors and x-rays were taken, they confirmed that I had scoliosis. Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine that can be life threatening if not taken care of. I was so young at the time, I didn’t understand how serious this really was. When I got my first brace I thought it was kind of cool and I laughed about it saying that people could now punch my stomach and I wouldn’t even feel it. I remember joking about how if someone ever tried to fight me (remember I was in elementary school and this was most likely not going to happen) that they would break their hand trying to punch me in the stomach. This was just one of the times where I joked about my back situation. I had to wear a brace on my back for 3 years. I actually ended up having to change between three different braces because I had so many growth spurts. Some people may think that picking out a design for a brace that you would have to wear and you know you would hate every minute of it would be hard, but actually it was really fun to me. There were so many designs and I loved picking out my favorite ones. This is an example where I could’ve been sad and not wanted to pick it out because I know I would always hated wearing it. Instead, I made the most of the situation and had fun. Also, they had a therapeutic dog there with three legs that lifted spirits a ton. After three years of wearing (or not really wearing) my brace, my curvature got worse and surgery was in the future. My mom was was really nervous about me having surgery at that age, but she knew it would be the best thing for me. On the day of my surgery I had this doll that I practiced giving IVś to and it helped me not be scared for when they gave me mine. This was another time were laughing took place in stead of stressing out. While my mom an I were waiting to go into the surgery room, we were laughing and joking about things not even thinking about what was actually going to be happening. I think that laughing and joking before my surgery helped eased the nervousness before. After my surgery, I could barely move onto my side and my mom was sitting next to me the entire time. Whenever I would have pain, I had something Ì could push to help with the pain. After they took it away, I still thought I had it and I would push it, but nothing was there. My mom an I laughed forever about that and still to today. This helped me through the pain because since I couldn’t use my button, my mom and I laughed and it helped. Being able to laugh at pain and things that usually people wouldn’t laugh at, helped me get through this process of back surgery a lot easier.

 
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