Spinal curvature: How I have been struggling with scoliosis since childhood
Scoliosis is a known disease. associated with curvature of the spine in humans. With all the prevalence of the disease, many myths are associated with it (for example, many believe that scoliosis leads to problems during pregnancy and childbirth, although studies do not confirm this), and the reasons for its occurrence are still not completely known to scientists. Scoliosis is fairly easy to diagnose, but its treatment is often taken lightly - although in the absence of proper treatment, the disease can lead to disorders in the musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems. Regina Bobrova told us how she had been struggling with scoliosis for more than ten years and what difficulties people with scoliosis in Russia face.
I am 23 years old and I have scoliosis of the first degree - a slight distortion of posture, which most people have. But it was not always so. Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with scoliosis of the third degree: a series of events and actions of doctors led to the fact that my spine was curved by 40 degrees, and the displacement of internal organs threatened even more serious problems. Then my mother decided everything for me: the doctors told me to operate, all I had to do was wait for the quota - for 2007, the metal construction alone for the operation cost more than 100 thousand rubles - and pass a bunch of tests. In the hospital I had a wonderful attending physician and surgeon. Doctors love to joke, especially in children's departments - it helps to relax and tune in a more optimistic way. True, I was still scared, but there was no way back. In the operating room after connecting the dropper asked to count to ten; it seems I managed to count to four or five and after that I don’t remember anything.
When I woke up in intensive care, I could not move. In the ward I was not alone: the children were lying next to them after the operations and the machines were squeaking. I was told that when I woke up, I said how beautiful everything is and how I love them, and the boy from the next bed started wrestling with the medical staff on waking up - everyone reacts differently. This operation lasts five hours: the back is cut along from the neck to the tailbone and along the entire length of the spinal column implant the endocorrector - a design that supports the back in the correct position and does not allow to bend in any direction.
I lay in intensive care under strong painkillers for several days. It was painful and scary, I once and a hundred times regretted that I agreed to this, but then pulled myself together. Every day, doctors came, checked the sensitivity of the legs and took blood. All my fingers were chipped several times, but it was necessary, and I tolerated it. Only a week later I was able to get out of bed. It was a little strange: I was taller — my height had increased from 169 to 175 centimeters. The head with the habit of spinning. It was impossible to sit a month so that there was no pressure on the back. The mobility of the spine was reduced by more than 50%, so it was impossible to bend the back. I was also forbidden to lift weights. It took about three months to recover from the operation.
The first time after the operation, I was angry with the whole world, I could not accept that this happened to me, and not to anyone else. It was a shame that I had to go through this, while my peers lived a normal life, played sports and did not know such problems. I, probably, envied them, but later began to pull myself up, I told myself that others were not to blame for my problems. Most likely, the transitional age affected, and, probably, my behavior was not particularly different from the behavior of my peers. I am not special. I am not worse than others. Many live with much greater ailments. I was able to accept myself as I was, and tried not to separate myself from others. I do not want to feel somehow different from others, a needy person.
I had to forget about the dream of becoming a flight attendant: people like me do not take in aviation
All girls at school age are worried about their appearance, and I am not an exception. Of course, there were complexes because of posture, especially I was worried if someone noticed my posture and started asking questions. I was always joking aside, but I didn’t make any secret of it either. Many people knew what was going on, and they were fine with that. Relations with classmates were pretty good; I was not much different from the rest, except that I was freed from physical education from the fourth grade. Since I knew my diagnosis from an early age, I avoided any health hazardous hobbies. The exception was the shooting sport - I refused it when I realized that the gun was too heavy for me.
I was treated since childhood: I was diagnosed with first-degree scoliosis when I was 10-11 years old. Twice a year for 1-3 months I spent in a suburban inpatient hospital of the T. S. Zatsepin Children's Hospital near Dmitrov. Children from 4 to 18 years old were treated there, and the atmosphere was more like a health camp. By age 12, scoliosis began to develop very quickly. Mom was very worried and started to drive me to a manual therapist, whose visits were insanely expensive: the doctor started talking to me only after seeing the conditional units on his desk. I went to him for two or three months, and after his treatment the disease developed to the third degree.
I had to forget about the childhood dream of becoming a flight attendant: people like me are not taken to aviation. Later I went to study as a manager, at the same time I worked as a consultant in clothing stores to pay for my studies, spent 12 hours a day on my feet and was very tired of such a regime.
Over time, after all the seams had healed, I began to notice that my back creaked and was all bruised. Doctors said that it would pass and you should not attach any importance to this. But the bruises remained for years, eventually a swelling appeared in the lower back. I always felt a little discomfort in this area, and eight years after the operation, when I was 21, I began to feel sharp pain. It was difficult to walk, I moved very slowly. Once I didn’t get to work, somehow I returned home to my mother, and we called an ambulance. It turned out my titanium design broke in half.
The hospital could not remove the fragments: they gave painkillers and sent them home. I do not like painkillers - I think they obscure the mind - but there was no choice. Later, I contacted the surgeon who created my endocorrector: after a couple of days I was taken to the hospital and a fragment was cut out so that he would not break out. It took literally about ten minutes, and the pain stopped, but most of the design remained in my back.
I again received a referral for the operation: it was necessary to install a new endocorrector. Again, a bunch of tests and waiting for quotas - this time everything was delayed for several months. I was a little afraid, but set up myself to go this way step by step again and just waited for the successful end of the story. Especially if I began to panic, then my relatives would have experienced much more. Everyone was already worried.
The operation was scheduled the next day after I went to the 83rd hospital. I was taken on a gurney to a cold light office and injected with anesthesia. I woke up in intensive care, it was very cold and I was shaking - it turned out that it was convulsions after anesthesia. I was pumped with painkillers and covered with a couple more blankets. The very next day I was transferred to a regular ward. Compared with the operation eight years ago, medicine has advanced: the rehabilitation time has decreased, the endocorrector shape has changed, and the stitches this time resembled neat brackets from the stapler, which gave the scar a more aesthetic look.
After the operation, eight weeks can not sit, six months - to lift things weighing more than six kilograms, and no sudden movements. I was prescribed a referral for disability registration, but I received it after the first operation, so I could only rehabilitate myself. Usually, a disability is given for a year, and then it is necessary to come for a re-examination. I was given indefinite disability for the third year after the first operation, and I still did not understand by what criteria she was given for a year, two, or a lifetime. It does not provide any special benefits: only pension and social assistance - free travel on public transport and a discount in pharmacies. With the second group, you can go to museums for free and enter a university in a preferential category. I didn’t want to apply for a disability, but in the end I thought that this would be a good financial compensation for my burden - all the more in the future it helped me to pay for my studies at the university.
After a second operation, the support of relatives and friends saved me from a bad mood. I could afford to play around a little. I was very bored of lying at home, I tried to quickly get out into the street, despite the excitement of the family, because movement is life. I tried to move as often as possible to get through it as quickly as possible.
Now, when looking for a job, it is better not to mention that there is a disability, except when it is written in a vacancy. It seems to me that people with disabilities are viewed differently. When colleagues or even strangers in the subway notice a scar, they react a little wildly, as if I am a freak. I answered questions to my colleagues in different ways, for example, I said that I slipped on a banana: the more absurd the answer, the faster the interest of others is lost. Once at work, a colleague noticed a scar and began to treat me strangely, as though I had a sign hanging over my head with bank details and a signature: "Help me collect for an operation in Germany." Apparently, he had never met anything like this, did not know how to behave, and decided that pity would be best. But this is not so - I will give many healthy odds. It is more pleasant when people do not pay attention to it.
It has been a year since the operation, but friends never let me carry bags of food and protect me, although I feel great. Probably, I need to use this opportunity, but I have enough disability according to the documents: I don’t want to feel like a disabled person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Often on the street I see children with scoliosis. It’s very sad that many people don’t try to fix it somehow, because the greater the degree of scoliosis, the worse the organs and blood flow. You need to be treated, and not for someone, but for yourself. I was not particularly fanatical about treatment, sometimes I missed the procedure and, after being discharged from the hospital, neglected exercise therapy. Perhaps if I thought and cared for myself more, then scoliosis would not have progressed so much. I regret it a little, but what happened was. Much depends on how you perceive your diagnosis, the main thing is not to hang your nose. It is necessary not to put on a cross and not be afraid to be treated. Well, to approach everything with humor: if it were not for this trait, taken from the doctors, it would be much more difficult for me to transfer all this.
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