Barbaric torture? Not for me!

Back to the whole (long) story…

Whilst I was a teenager and visiting the nice man (and his many students) in the scoliosis clinic, nothing at all was done about my curves. There was much watching, many x-rays and lots of times where I was asked to walk up and down the corridor. They drew on my back with felt tip pens and then asked me to bend over, measured my height every time I went, but never actually did anything else.

Why, you might ask was this? Well, I don’t know for certain – firstly I was too young to care, then I was too embarrassed by being half naked in front of all the students and then I was a surly teenager who wasn’t interested in anything adults said! Actually the half naked thing was something else – they had these ‘bikini’ tops in our clinic – imagine a triangular bandage with the middle point folded over and a thread put though it to tie around your neck. The strings were always broken and they always gaped at the sides – definitely not high fashion !

Anyway, I digress. There were a few things suggested that could be done with me over that period, but they all seemed horrific to me. Firstly they talked about bracing – huge metal and leather contraptions that would only suit the worst kind of fetishist. These were designed to hold your curves whilst growing – but I stopped growing at 12 so that was out the window. At the time I was borderline for surgery – they say with scoliosis that if your curves are less than 40º then they won’t progress once you’ve stopped growing. At 50º they will – but what if you are somewhere in between? Well, they may or may not progress! So was surgery really an option, especially with the complications of spina bifida? There were nasty rumours of 12 months in a plaster cast with 6 months of that in bed in a plaster cast – and horrible risks of paralysis and even death. Eeek! All this at a time when I was just discovering boys, makeup and all the fun stuff in life. Can’t say I was too keen on the idea of surgery!

Well, that was that really. I started to grow up and do all the things your parents wish you wouldn’t. My curves stuck as they were and I got on with my life. Sure, I had a limp and couldn’t walk as fast (or far) as most of my friends but mostly things were great. My back looked funny, but it didn’t hurt – at least not then. But that as they say is another story!