Re: diagnosis and bracing

[Guest guest]

Jeri - I wore one of those braces, called a Milwaukee brace,in junior high. It was very traumatic. I begged and cried to my parents not to make me go. When I entered the school, the girls all crowded around me. "What happened to you? What is that? Were you in an accident?" I remember it very clearly, and was absolutely mortified. After about three months they decided it wasn't working and I went in for surgery and my Harrington rods. Good luck to you in your upcoming surgery. Kathy W.bocce_fun <bocce@...> wrote: Ditto . except my fusion was in 1980, and skipped all that too. I remember a girl in my high school class wore a brace with a chin rest. (1970-1972) I had NO IDEA that I had the same problem as she did. I was too shy to ask her why she wore the brace. She was very shy too, gee, I wonder why?I didn't find out I had scoliosis until I was 26ish. There was an article in Parade magazine that explained why one leg seemed to be shorter... when I saw the orthopedic surgeon, it confirmed that I had diagnosed myself correctly. I often wonder why no one caught it earlier. We moved from Wis to SC and back to Wis from about 6th grade to 8th grade -- I'm guessing about the time school nurses checked for it. We also had no health insurance as my parents were self-employed, so I don't remember going to dr for checkups, just when something was wrong.JeriI "skipped" all the

bracing > that many kids my age went through, because nobody noticed my curves > until they were almost 70 degrees - so I went directly into surgery. > But compared to all of your experiences, it was a breeze. There was no > pre-surgery stretching, no casting, no braces afterwards or anything. >

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