How I found out

Me about 6 months before my diagnosis.
 
My back was normal.



A question that I get asked a lot is how I found out I had scoliosis. Well I found out when I got strep throat and was home sick for a few days and had lost a few pounds. I was looking at myself in the mirror and noticed that one hip seemed higher than the other and one of my sides seemed to be more straight than the other one.  I found my mom and asked her to look.  She immediately asked me to bend over and touch my toes and ran her hands down my back.  When I stood up she said lightly, "I think we should make you an appointment with Dr. Shallot."  I saw my pediatrician, Dr. Shallot, the same week and she immediately sent me to see Dr. Akeson. Dr. Akeson is my scoliosis doctor and the doctor who will do my surgery.

The first appointment with Dr. Akeson....
I had to go to the hospital and have a special set of x-rays taken of my back and take them with me to my appointment.  The room was really scary.  I had to stand against a special wall in a dark room.  Dr. Akeson looked at them on his computer and did some measurements and began to explain the different levels of scoliosis as he showed me and my family the x-ray of my spine.  I just kept thinking "is that even possible that that is really MY spine"

my first x-ray

Dr. Akeson told us I would have to wear a brace to sleep in to try and slow down the progression of the curve so my body could grow and get stronger.  He also told us I would have to have surgery to correct it within the next few years.  I was shocked and scared about what was going to happen to me. 

Like always my family managed to find a way to laugh even while hearing bad news.  My sister, Julia, had been designing and making her own clothes.  She wore one of these outfits to my appointment which included a handmade headband with something she called a "bob" on the top of it.  

the outfit Julia designed and
wore to my appointment that day

the zebra guy on top of her
head is "the bob"

So just as Dr. Akeson is delivering the bad news about surgery and everyone in the room is fighting back tears,  Julia's "bob" fell off her headband and rolled right in front of Dr. Akeson and was parked right between his shoes looking at him with it's google eyes.  Everyone, including Dr. Akeson laughed as Julia grinned and retrieved her "bob".