Scoliosis Changed My Life for the Better

Hello everyone, it’s about time I start a blog! This has been a goal of mine for quite some time now, so I am very excited to write about a journey of mine that I am passionate about and very open to sharing. When I was 11 years old, I was diagnosed with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, which is a sideways curvature of the spine. Since the first diagnosis, I’ve had countless appointments with my orthopedic surgeon, I’ve worn an uncomfortable back brace, and at the age of 15 I had spinal fusion surgery.

I was kind of shocked to hear that I needed surgery, especially since I had been consistently wearing my back brace every single night. As a lifelong dancer and a member of my high school’s varsity dance team, I was very worried that having spinal fusion surgery would affect my flexibility. My specialty as a dancer was my back flexibility, and I knew that there was no way I would ever be able to do a back split with titanium rods and screws in my spine. But I knew getting surgery was the best decision for me since my severe scoliosis worsened to 64 degrees and two curves in my spine.

I believe everything happens for a reason, but at the time I couldn’t think of a positive reason to be diagnosed with scoliosis. Due to the fact that, I had to stop dancing, I had back pain, and my shoulder blades were very uneven. I told myself there were two ways I can look at this situation. I could either be sorry for myself that I have to go through surgery, or I can be proud of myself for choosing to accept this and move forward.

When I made my decision to stay positive, I had so many blessings come to my life. The summer before my surgery I met my friend Tyanna in a physical education class. I found out she had scoliosis surgery with the same surgeon that was going to do my surgery. This was so exciting for me to hear since at the time, I had never met anyone else with scoliosis as severe as mine. Our families met and talked about the surgery which put my parents at ease. Then I met Tyanna’s twin brother Stephen, who is my boyfriend that I have been dating for the last four years. Looking back at it now, it’s scary to think that I wouldn’t have met Tyanna, her parents, and my amazing boyfriend Stephen, if I didn’t have scoliosis. I can't imagine what my life would be like without them.

Throughout my surgery recovery I created Youtube videos of hospital vlogs to document my own experiences. Little did I know that these videos and my recovery story would be helpful to thousands of people around the world. I started to create more scoliosis videos to share tips and advice for anyone who had the same questions I had before and after surgery. It’s always nice to be able to relate to someone who has gone through the same experiences that you have, so I wanted to provide that to the scoliosis community.

I hope through this blog, I can share my story to inspire other people with scoliosis and to remind them that they are not alone. Stay tuned for upcoming posts about my journey, my spinal fusion surgery, and my advice to scoliosis patients. I believe we are stronger than we know, braver than we think, and that we can do anything if we set our mind to it. Scoliosis makes me bent but not broken. It’s a part of who I am, and I can proudly say it has changed my life for the better.