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Crystal LongWilliams

Scoliosis and My Experience



What is Scoliosis?

Scoliosis is the horizontal curve of the spine. Many doctors often refer to it as a “C” or “S” shaped curve. There are four types of scoliosis:


Idiopathic scoliosis is scoliosis with an unknown cause. About 80% of all scoliosis cases are

idiopathic, and doctors have still yet to find causes for them.

Congenital scoliosis begins to develop before the birth of a child. Problems with the tiny bones in the back, called vertebrae, can cause the spine to curve. The vertebrae may be incomplete or fail to divide properly. Sometimes, this type of scoliosis is noticed immediately after birth. Other times, it is not until the child’s teen years that congenital scoliosis is discovered.

Neuromuscular scoliosis is caused by a disorder like spina bifida (1), cerebral palsy (2), or a spinal cord injury. These conditions sometimes damage your muscles, so they don’t support your spine correctly. Because of the weakness of your spine, it can curve from the loss of support.

Degenerative scoliosis affects adults. It usually develops in the lower back as the disks and joints of the spine. As you age, the likelihood of a person developing this condition increases.


Causes

There are two types of causes for scoliosis: structural and non-structural. In non-structural scoliosis, the spine is functioning properly, but its physical appearance looks different than normal. This can happen because one leg is longer than the other, muscle spasms, or inflammation in the body, like appendicitis (3).


In structural scoliosis, the scoliosis cannot be reversed. This is the type of scoliosis that happens in cases such as cerebral palsy, birth defects, genetic conditions, tumors, and infections.


Treatments

For mild scoliosis, treatment isn’t always necessary. However, in other more extreme cases, there are a couple of treatment options. These include braces and spine fusion surgery.


When you think of braces, you usually think of the hard wire that orthodontists put on your teeth, but in this case, braces are quite different. Braces are made of a durable plastic and oftentimes include cushioning in certain areas for comfort. Braces work by applying pressure to your spine, in some areas more pressure, to help correct the degree of the curve.


Spine fusion surgery is a type of surgery where surgeons input pieces of bones into your spine and use hardware to hold the bones in place until they all fuse together. By doing this, the pieces of bones and hardware stop your curve from growing worse as you age.


My Experience

I had scoliosis, and I wanted to share with others my journey with it. My scoliosis is idiopathic, meaning there wasn’t a direct cause of the curve, and it was also a small curve, not a large one. My mom, being worried about my future, pushed to get a back brace for me. There are a couple several types of braces, but the one I had to wear was a Boston Back Brace. Like I previously stated in the treatment section, braces work by applying pressure to the sides of the body to align the curve. Depending on where the curve is and how large it is, the pressure applied can be more on one side than the other. In my case, I had more pressure applied to the right side of my body. In addition, my orthopedic doctors had also put in a small tracking device that tracked how long I wore my brace for. Wearing this brace, I was about to start fifth grade, and I had begun to discover that kids could be judgey as well. I had to figure out how to make sure no one found out, and that put a lot of stress on me during the years I had worn it.


As for the mental aspect of wearing a brace, it really took a toll on my self-esteem even as young as 10 years old. Even though no one knew about it, I still wondered quite often ‘why was I born like this?’ or ‘Why am I so different from everyone else?’ These questions had always seemed to circulate in my head as I was around other children. I had to continue wearing my brace for five and a half more years, and as I got older, I came to realize that there wasn’t anything I should be ashamed of. We are all perfectly made, and these things are what make us unique!


(1) Spina bifida- Is a condition that affects the spine and is usually apparent at birth. This condition can occur anywhere along the spine when the neural tube, a hollow structure that allows the brain and spinal cord to form, doesn’t close all the way.

(2) Cerebral palsy- A group of neurological disorders that affects a child’s motor skills.

(3) Appendicitis- The appendix is a long tub of tissue connected to the large intestine that creates antibodies. Appendicitis is the inflammation of the appendix. It is a medical emergency and should be treated right away with surgery.

 

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