Tweet
Hello, everybody!!! I'm new nere!
Hello!
I'm Ana from Serbia. I'm 29 years old and I'm diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 11. Then my thoracic curve was about 45 degrees, the lumbar one about 33. I spent a week in a hospital then being prepared for surgery, but neither of my parents would give their consent to operation and I was happy about it then!
So, they gave me a TSLO brace to wear. And I wore it for a short time. I stopped wearing it after my skin bled due to the friction between the plastic of the brace and my skin.... So, I ignored the problem for about 18 years. I had no pain. I did everything without restrictions. I played volleyball, swam, ran.... I didn't even have a poor self-image at all. I just pretended my spine is as right as it should be.
I got married in 2003, had my first son in 2004, the second one in 2006. Still I have no problems at all! But my kids made me think in a more responsible way about everything! Now that the younger one isn't a baby any more and that I don't have to watch over him 24/7, I dedicated my thoughts to myself and my future. I've started to worry: what if I have serious helath problems in 5, 10, 15 years time and become a burden to my sons instead of support.....
having this in mid, I visited my doctor who addmitted me to hopsital for the first time, back there in 1990. He said I'm a "relative" candidate for surgery. He didn't even send me to do x-rays after 18 years! I was a bit disappointed beacuse I wanted to know if my scoliosis was progressive. I insisted to have an x-ray and he sent me to do it. I did it and he said he thought my scoliosis looks the same as 18 years ago-he didn't even measure the angles! still disappionted! But he advised me to come some other time and do some "corrective" x-rays if I opted for surgery!
Accidentaly, I came across a 40-year-old woman form my town who had surgery two days ago! Her surgery was performed by another doctor form another hospital. I visited him and he said he thinks my curves are moderate, but he was not sure and would not give any prognosis without x-rays. I'm goiung to have these x-rays taken on the 5th january 2009 and afterwards I'm going to hve an appointment with the doctor.
I have to mention that Serbia is such a small country! We don't have se many orthopedic suregons as you do in the USA. Both of these two surgeons I talked to are the most reputed ones in my country. We have only 2 hopsitals that deal with spine surgery. I also have some dilemmas about docotrs, but i'll write about it some other time, tomorrow probably! Now, I'm off to work!
p.s.I've been on this forum for a while. i've been reading your posts and they are such a help! Finally, I decided to start posting here, too!
Comment