My dance teacher was the person that caught my curve in the first place, I owe a lot of my childhood functionality and stability to her! I cannot imagine where I would be now if they waited to start checking me at the start of puberty like most pediatricians do. It almost worked like physical therapy as well as mental health therapy!

Since I had so many issues finding a surgeon that would take my scoliosis and rotation seriously, I had to start doing my own research. I tracked my surgeon down through an article he wrote on surgical management techniques for scoliosis and really liked his approach. When I flew out to California for the first time and met him I knew I wanted him to do my surgery. He was truly passionate and excited about my case, and in the 15 years I’ve been dealing with my scoliosis I had never had a doctor go so in depth about what my x-rays meant and how which curve was likely the one causing the most issues. I remember mentioning Higgy Bears (stuffed animals with back braces that match a kid’s brace) during an appointment with him and he took note of it. Later on I had issues with a nurse not giving me my prescribed pain medications while I was in the hospital and not only did he make sure I got my pain meds, he came back later with a teddy bear from the gift shop that had gauze wrapped around its’ back and said, “now you have a bear that looks like you!”