I got diagnosed with Scoliosis just before my 14th birthday. We were shown an x-ray and my mum burst into tears, I didn’t know why.
I took it in my stride, in fact I used it to my advantage and never took part in P.E. at school again. I had to wear a Boston brace 23 hours a day. It was not fun and was like a torture device, especially in summer when it was unbearably hot. I have a compulsion to try to do what I’m told, so for the first year I wore it every day. However, after 12 months of torture the new x-ray showed that my spine looked exactly the same as it did before. I was less diligent after that!
I never got upset about my spine. I was so introverted (now I’d say autistic) that I never realised that it had affected my classmates view of me. No one ever said anything, but years later a chance encounter with an old classmate led to her telling me how I’d freaked her out by removing my brace in the middle of a class.
I don’t even remember doing that!
