Colette's Story

I was diagnosed with scoliosis at 9 years old by a pediatrician. My family and I then went to an orthopedic doctor and after a couple of months of my curve increasing, we decided to brace. I wore the Providence brace for 2 years, only at night. After that, I didn't have to wear the brace and my curve was stable at 30 degrees.  I tried going to a chiropractor for 2 years, which unfortunately, didn't help. I then went to another doctor and was told that the curve had increased to 48 degrees. 4 months later, we went back to see if the curve increased and it had again increased to 52 degrees. We then made the decision to have surgery in the summer of 2017.

I had the surgery July 11th, 2017. I had 2 Cobalt-Chrome rods and 19 Titanium screws inserted in my spine from T4-L3. I was in pediatric intensive care unit for 2 days and I sat up in the chair the day after surgery! After that, I was moved to the general pediatric floor for 3 days. I was walking and doing stairs on post op days 3 and 4! I stayed in the hospital for 5 days. Everyday got better after about 2 weeks! I was doing some things by a month! I walked everyday and watched a lot of tv shows! I had several friends visit! 2 of my friends Izzy and Julia had the same surgery, so they gave me a ton of tips and helped answer any questions I had.

I have always been a runner: I’ve done cross country, track, ran a half marathon before surgery, and several other races. I was able to do spring track since I was 8 months post op, which was the best track season ever! I then did a half marathon with a friend at 11 months post op and was able to get a personal best of 1:59:12! I love to run and thought it was going to take a while to be able to run again, but I’ve been more thankful than ever now that I am able to run after having this major surgery.

I turned 1 year post op on July 11th, and time has gone by so fast - things were so different a year ago. I was just recovering from surgery last July. It may of have been a long recovery, but I learned so much from this big adventure and experience! It changed my life, taught me many lessons and helped me become stronger!

Thanks for sharing your story, Colette! It is so inspiring to hear about your successes after surgery, and hearing about your experience is a reminder that we’re bent, not broken! :)