June 25: Judith Abigail's Scoliosis Story

TSAP is proud to present the scoliosis story of Judith Abigail T. Her story is truly amazing and inspirational, and we would like to thank her for sharing. Below is her empowering story.

I found out I had scoliosis when I was getting my sports physical in the 7th grade. It was a routine physical at the doctor’s office that we always went to when one of us was sick so we never thought for a second that they would miss anything. After the doctor cleared me, I remember asking my mom if we should call the doctor back in and ask about a part of my rib cage that sticks out because I had forgotten when he was in there. The doctor looked shocked and confused when we showed him my rib and said “ yeah, that’s not normal” and then uncleared me for sports before ordering an X-ray to be done. None of us could believe what we were seeing. I had a 50° curve at the top of my spine and a 20° curve on the bottom of my spine, making an “S” shape. I looked at the X-ray and wondered how that was possible. Shouldn’t I have been able to feel something like that? Going home I kept wondering what would have happened if I had not mentioned anything to the doctor. I was cleared for sports, then I wasn’t. If it was as bad as it looked, why didn’t the doctor notice it?

We were recommended to see a specialist to find out more. We saw two different doctors. The first doctor my mom absolutely hated. I remember the doctor was running late to our appointment because he was in surgery with another patient (the same surgery I would later get) and the nurse told us that he would ask the doctor to hurry up so we could see him. We’ll never know if the nurse asked the doctor to hurry up a major surgery or if he was just trying to make us feel comfortable, but my mom was most definitely not happy about it. Then once the doctor showed up, he was very quick and adamant about me getting a surgery within the next few weeks. I don’t think he really answered any of the questions my mom had and after my mom told him we would be getting a second opinion he gave us a bit of an attitude before leaving. We never went back. The second doctor we saw was highly recommended and we trusted him completely after the first meeting. We went over my X-rays in detail, and he confirmed that surgery was needed since a back brace wouldn’t have worked at that point, but it was not urgent. He recommended that I have the surgery before I started high school since my spine would still be flexible enough to straighten and the healing process would be easier. We were still disappointed that surgery was the only option we had but were so relieved that it was not something that needed to happen right away. The doctor was quite surprised that I wasn’t in any pain since most patients with the same spinal degrees experienced a lot of pain. I had been very active in taekwondo and other sports for years, so we assumed my body just adapted to the pain or that I had such a high pain tolerance I just didn’t feel it. He cleared me for all sports and allowed me to continue playing the drums since at that point I knew what my body could and could not handle. I went ahead and stayed in taekwondo, played soccer, ran cross country, hurdled, high jumped, and carried a snare drum for both 7th and 8th grade.

I spent a lot of time paying close attention to my body after that and I started to notice how unsymmetrical I was and how it affected me. My hips were not aligned with my shoulders, and I used to rest my left forearm on my left hip since it stuck out so much it was in the way. One of my shoulder straps for my backpack was always sliding off since one of my shoulders was slightly higher than the other. The whole time I just thought I had defective backpacks. I noticed when I would sit against the back of a chair I was at an angle since my rib cage was not straight and that was the only way to have my back fully against the chair. Looking at pictures of myself, we were able to see how my hip had progressed to that point and it seemed so obvious now we had no idea how we were not able to notice it sooner.

I had a spinal fusion in June 2013. At that point, the curve at the top of my spine was close to 70° while the bottom curve was around 30°. I was so nervous that I didn’t want to finish my Whataburger chicken strip meal the night before. I can’t even remember how much I slept that night. The morning of the surgery while being prepped I had an allergic reaction to the anesthetic. I got hot and itchy but once they gave me something for the symptoms, I was all better. I remember laying on the hospital bed going down different hallways with my mom at my side before being separated. I can remember them lifting me from the bed to another (it was probably a table) and listing flavors of something for me to pick. I chose watermelon and knocked out. It felt like only seconds had passed when I woke up after the surgery, but it had been hours. One of the first things I noticed when I woke up was this stuffed flower wrapped around the arm of the bed that was apparently brought by a “freaky clown” as my parents described. I was so weak after the surgery. I couldn’t pull myself up from the bed. I needed to hold onto something or someone when walking to the restroom or in the halls. I couldn’t squat down to sit or pick myself back up. I was extremely tired the entire time, but I was so uncomfortable it was difficult to fall asleep. I was lucky I had such amazing nurses who always checked on me to make sure everything was alright, helped me when I needed something, and they were great at waking me up for my medications right after I was finally able to fall asleep! I was discharged after almost a week and was able to walk very slowly on my own.

Physically, some things had changed, and some stayed the same after the surgery. I instantly grew an inch and a half and sadly didn’t grow anymore. My hips were now aligned so my left hip was no longer in the way of my left arm, but I started to hit my right hip on every possible corner. My shoulders were still uneven with my left being straight to the side and down while my right was up and at a forward angle. Because of this, when I reach with both arms my right arm can extend further than my left. My left rib cage still sticks out to the front while my right rib cage sticks out to the back, so I am unable to lay completely flat since there is always this space on my left side unless I slant myself. I had the option of removing some ribs to straighten out my rib cage, but I chose not to since it could lead to other health problems when I got older. Also, since I had these rods and screws engraved into my spinal cord, I was no longer able to arch my back.

This affected me in high school. If I wanted to lay my head down, I had to stack textbooks on the desk because I couldn’t arch over enough to lay my head on the actual desk. All contact sports were out of the question for the rest of high school, so my main focus was running. My freshman year I started as a distance runner since I wasn’t cleared to hurdle until basically the last week of the season and I was no longer allowed to high jump. I focused on healing, loosening up, and gaining my strength and speed back. It wasn’t until about halfway through the track season my sophomore year when I started to feel like my old self again athletically. I was getting faster and hurdling more comfortably. I even fell a few times and was able to get back up and go again. I stuck with it the rest of high school. For band I wasn’t allowed to lift or push anything heavy at first. Being a percussionist and always having to move equipment around, I felt useless at times. Sophomore year I was able to be on the drumline and it was so difficult for me some days since it had only been a year since my surgery, and I was still healing. By the time I was a senior, my body adapted to the weight of the drum so much it was almost natural to carry it all the time.

The summer of 2019, just six years after my surgery, I found out I was pregnant. Going into the pregnancy I knew I was going to be labeled “high-risk” so I made sure I was always walking and staying active so my body would stay strong. I didn’t start to show until about week 20 and my belly grew fast. Once I was “large” I started using a belly support brace when I would sit for long periods of time since I only had back pain when I sat for too long. The days I was active I was all good. I kept working and going to school through my pregnancy and was told that I walked and moved very well for being pregnant, especially with my “condition”. I was already dilated weeks before I was due to give birth and experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions that I couldn’t even feel unless my hand was on my belly as I have a very high pain tolerance. I never felt true back pain until I was hooked up to a machine that induces contractions. My lower back was absolutely killing me up until I started pushing. The nurse kept telling me to arch forward more as I pushed but I wasn’t able to arch my back enough for it to work. She had to grab my shoulder and give me a little nudge for me to lean forward and finally pop out the baby. Postpartum, I did not experience any back pain. I was tired and sore and was struggling to walk fast but not because of my back. My spine did not fail me. I was able to carry my 8 pound baby boy and I still carry him at 25 pounds today.

It’s now been 8 years since my surgery, and I am as strong as I could be.

This story was written by Judith Abigail T.

June 2021