Photos taken before Surgery - 19 days to go..

The first picture is just to show you what it looks like when I stand up straight (well, what feels straight to me). The second one is just showing what my spine looks like when I bend to the left. I had x-rays doing this as it helps the doctors see the flexibility of the curves, but I am fairly sure my doctor kept those ones.

In the first picture, if you look closely you can see my right shoulder is more elevated than the left, and bones stick out more apparently. The second picture shows you what I look like when I am bending over (photo was taken on the left side of me obviously). It shows how for some reason my scoliosis has caused the right side of my body to stick out strangely.

The two images above are just showing one bending straight over photo (they use this method to actually help in diagnosing scoliosis as you can see the spinal deformity becomes prominent when you bend over). The second picture shows you what I think is called a rib hump? I'm not sure what it is, but the curvature of my spine causes a rib hump directly under my right rib cage).

The two above images are just showing what my back looks like side on. In the second one, I am not purposefully pushing my right side really far back. That is what the scoliosis has done to me as my body has shifted. In the first one you can once again see the rib hump under my rib cage.

In the first one above I tried to make the S curve of my spine a bit more apparent so you could see what it looks like. The one to the right is just another standing up one (you can see my elevated right shoulder, my more apparent right 'angel wing,' my rip hump and the fact that any pants/shorts/skirts I wear are on an angle as my hips are not aligned either).

I hope you all enjoy the lovely images :) Leave comments if you would like to.

20 days to go

It has been 34 days since I originally found out my surgery was scheduled for the 14th of May, 2010. It seems like much longer though, considering I have known I would need this surgery since last September, when I was first diagnosed with severe double curved scoliosis.Before I knew I had scoliosis, I suffered many painful days wondering why after sport I would feel crippled, and I couldn't walk for long periods of time without my back stiffening. Not to mention I couldn't sit very comfortable on any chair, and sleeping was becoming more uncomfortable as well. However, last September, my doctor, diagnosed me with scoliosis after doing some tests and me getting x-rays. To say the least, I was shocked by the X-rays I saw, as I had never seen anything like them. (The X-ray to the right is the first x-ray I had seen of my spine).

As you can see, I have two curves in my spine. The top one measured at 55 degrees, and the bottom one was 60 degrees. However, when my doctor measured these, I still had two years left of spinal development, meaning that I really needed surgery, otherwise the curves would keep progressing as I developed to the point they could both reach over 100 degrees. So after several more x-rays, a very long MRI session, other appointments, and a whole lot of pain, I am 20 days away from having the surgery that will ultimately change my life, for not just now but the future (if I wasn't to go ahead with the surgery, as I grew older I would end up having one curve significantly over take the other one, and I would begin to tilt sideways).

If you refer to the picture showing the spine sections, I am having spinal fusion to correct scoliosis from T4 to either L3 or L4, which encompasses 13/14 vertebrae. My doctor would prefer to go to L3, as if he goes to L4 I will lose a lot of movement and flexibility. Going to L3 just means I will have a bit more movement. I am having posterior surgery, which means I will have a large scar down the middle of my back.I will continue to blog as my countdown to surgery shortens, and will probably mention things i have left out in this blog.