I remember the day that I walked into the doctor's office on an early morning in September. I walked in and, immediately, I was sent to the x-ray room. I remember being really nervous from the start because I knew that if it was as bad as my mom thought it was, I would be getting a Scoliosis brace. I walked into the x-ray room, looking at all the fancy machines, swarming butterflies in my stomach. The doctor took the x-ray and it wasn’t as stressful as I expected it to be. Later that week, I went back to my doctor so he could look at my x-rays and share his insight. We looked at them together and he explained what it all meant. Basically, I had an S curve which is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of my spine being straight, it was in the shape of an S. I was kind of shocked because I had never had any back aches or complained about my back before. It was weird to think that one month from then, I would be wearing a piece of plastic around my back that would stay with me for three years. I spoke with my doctor about what the next steps would be in getting a brace and we came to the conclusion that I should go to Washington D.C. and get it made there because the braces that the doctor makes there are able to correct the rotation and not just the curve.

About a month later, my mom and I took a road trip to DC. I walked into the doctor's office and was greeted by a very kind nurse who took my height and weight. Finally, the doctor came in. He was very tall, had brown hair, a mustache and a big grin on his face. He talked to me a little about everything and helped me understand more what my diagnosis was. He told me a little about how he was going to make my brace. First, he had to make a plaster mold of my back. He used a computer program to do this. He scanned my back and instantly it appeared on the computer screen. I came back the next day and he brought me to the basement where he makes all the braces for his patients. He had the mold that he was making of my back. The plastic was heating up at a very high temperature in the oven and he asked me what color brace I wanted. I chose to get purple tye-dye because at the time, purple was my favorite color. We took the very very hot plastic out of the oven and took tissue paper and patted it everywhere on the plastic to make it look tye-dye. I was so excited that he was going to let me help make my brace but I was also very surprised. He put it back in the oven for a few minutes and then got some of his staff to help him. This part I couldn’t help with because the plastic was too hot for me and I didn’t know what to do. They took the hot plastic and wrapped it around the mold of my back. They had to do this very quickly because the plastic dries fairly quickly. Then after that he let me help drill holes in it and put the buckles on it to make it easy to put on and remove. After that was finished, I had to try it on. At first, it was so uncomfortable. I told him where it hurt, where I felt pressure, and where it was comfortable. He put padding in the brace where it hurt and cut off some pieces that put too much pressure on my skin. Finally, he adjusted it so that, it was comfortable enough to wear, however it was still doing what it needed to be doing.

I remember the first night being sent home with my brace, feeling like one of the worst nights of my life. The minute I put the brace on, I felt like I needed to take it off right away. The pain was endless. I would try and fall asleep but it was incredibly difficult because I would feel claustrophobic and like something was pinching me constantly. Finally, I fell asleep for an hour, but kept waking up every hour afterwards. After a couple of hours in discomfort, I took it off and told myself that I would wear it the next morning. The next morning, I put the brace on, trying to ignore all the pain I felt up my spine and headed back to the doctor that made my brace. I told him exactly how I was feeling and he said it was completely normal and everyone feels like this. I was extremely surprised. I expected him to say something like, well thats weird, but he assured me that everyone has this same issue. I was happy to hear that it was normal and that things would get better. He made a couple tweaks to the brace, adding a little more padding. He drilled holes in the stomach of the brace. In asked him why he did that. He basically said that wearing the brace, specifically in the spring and summer can get very very hot and sticky and that put drilling holes there it created more air and space. He called them “air conditioning”. Finally after that he sent me home for good back to Brookline. 

I now go to Brookline High School, as a sophomore. I recently got my brace off and will not be getting surgery because of the brace. This has greatly impacted my life and although wearing the brace was tough, I am so glad that I made the commitment to wear it everyday until the day that I was told that I didn’t need to wear it anymore.