naomiaimoan said on 01 May 2012
I first discovered that I had Scoliosis when I was 14 when my mum noticed that I was sitting lopsidedly, so she felt down my spine and discovered that I had quite a significant curve to my lower spine. This was confirmed by the doctor, who referred me to my local hospital to have an x-ray, which revealed that I had a 47 degree curvature. I was then referred to the Nuffield Orthapeadic Centre in Oxford which specialises in things such as Scoliosis, where I met a Scoliosis specialist surgeon who offered me an operation. He said that I'd just about stopped growing, so now would've been a good time to operate. I decided to accept the operation offer & a date was set. I had my operation at the John Radcliffe Children's Hospital in Oxford on Tuesday 1st November 2011 when I was 15. On the first night, I struggled to get to sleep and completely lost my appetite because I was far too drowsy from the morphine to even care about eating. The day after (Wednesday), I managed to sit on the edge of the bed with a physiotherapists help, and on Thursday, I managed to walk from my hospital bed to the toilet and back. It felt very strange because my back felt 'tight' and 'heavy', as if I had a suit of armour on. The average time a Scoliosis patient spends in hospital after having the operation is around 1 week, and I managed to have my operation on Tuesday and go home on Sunday of the same week - which was actually quite quick! I'm in my last year at school (year 11) & even though I had from the start of November to the end of the Christmas Holidays off school, I felt that I was ready to go back to school after Christmas. I'm glad I had the operation because I'm able to sit in class now without having to move around and stretch my back because of pain. I have some numbness in my sides (top of my thighs), but the feeling is slowly coming back now, 5 months afterwards.
