Have you ever heard of Scoliosis? I will tell you more about my scoliosis surgery experience.
My Scoliosis surgery experience
Scoliosis is not a disease, but rather it is a term used to describe any abnormal, sideways curvature of the spine. Viewed from the back, a typical spine is straight. When scoliosis occurs, the spine can curve in one of three ways:
I have had Scoliosis in the shape like a letter S, it means that the spine has two curves.
How did I found out I had Scoliosis?
Well, one day a girlfriend of mine was making braids in my hair. Suddenly she said: ‘’ Your bag is curved?! ‘’ We were both a bit shocked. She painted every vertebra red with a lipstick. She took a picture and she showed it to me. At that moment I was really in a shock. I immediately called my mother and told her something was seriously wrong with my back. She told me to calm down. The same day I went to the doctor.
The doctor told me to calm down a bit. I should go to the hospital to make some X-ray photos.
What are the symptoms of scoliosis?
There are many symptoms:
- One shoulder is higher than the other
- One shoulder blade sticks out more than the other
- One side of the rib cage appears higher than the other
- One hip appears higher or more prominent than the other
- The waist appears uneven
- The body tilts to one side
- One leg may appear shorter than the other
Girls at Higher Risk
Unfortunately for girls, but we have a much higher risk for a scoliosis. I had a bow of 68 degrees. In case of more than 40 degrees, a surgery is necessarily.
But not in my case. My doctor told me it will be okay if I should do some physio therapy. So I did for more than two years. But my complaints got worse and worse. One day I decided to call every hospital in The Netherlands and asked them if they could do a scoliosis surgery. After one week I was invited to come over to Groningen, a city in the North of Holland.
The specialist told me that I had a serious problem and I needed to get surged as soon as possible. That freaked me out again, off course.
Just a month later it was the day of surgery. I was so nervous. The thing with the surgery is that the doctors place some surgical pins. The problem with these pins is that the flexibility of the bag disappears.
Lots of people often ask me if it still hurts. Well my surgery is already five years ago and it doesn’t hurt frequently.
