Diagnosis: Scoliosis

*Age 17 with 52 and 57 degree curves.

At age 6, my parents took me to the doctor after I had told them my back had been hurting. The x-rays led to an easy diagnosis: idiopathic scoliosis. I had a small curve of 18 degrees. Nothing needed to be done, except to wait and watch it carefully.

Life went on as usual, and I was in 5th grade when the doctor noticed that my curve had progressed to two curves of 30 and 23 degrees. It was time to try to stop those curves. So then began those years of wearing my Boston back brace, 23 hours a day.

It's not surprising that I have scoliosis, because it runs in the family, as it does in most cases. More people need to be aware of scoliosis to prevent possible serious health problems in the future. Many statistics show that out of 100 people, 3-5 will have scoliosis. It doesn't seem like many, but I ended up being one of them. And you could be too.