My Auto-“Back”-ography

My Auto-“Back”-ography

By: Taylor Kluck

What started out as a warm, tropical vacation to the Dominican Republic with my family turned out to be the most important trip of my life. As we arrived in the airport, I was so happy to see the beautiful sun shining after leaving behind the dreary December weather of Drumheller, Alberta. On the shuttle to the hotel, my head was swivelling like a top – trying to take in all that was the Dominican.

AS A 12 YEAR OLD

A few days past where we visited local markets, ate and drank to our full and enjoyed the company of our family. But the best part about our resort was that it was a small walk from the sea. As a 12 year old girl, I was so excited to see the sea. The beautiful blue colour, the way it seemed to stretch so far and how the curls flowed onto the coarse sand was everything I had imagined it would be.

My brother and I spent so much time swimming and playing in the water, I though we had become fish. The sea tousled us, pushed us and on a few occasions made me run to the safety of the shore as the waves became massive as my parents and younger sister looked on from further up the beach. It seemed that there could be no end to our fun. But of course, boys will be boys.

ON ANOTHER DAY

On another day, we were lounging by the pool. I wanted to get lots of sun so I decided to wear a bikini. After lying in the sun for a while, it was time to cool off. So, I prepped to do a shallow dive into the pool. I was just enjoying my swim when I started to hear my mother raising her voice with my brother. Me, thinking silently to myself, this is going to be good, wondering how much trouble he was in this time and what for.

“Josh, why would you say such a thing? You’re always looking for ways to antagonize your sister. Just let her swim in peace!” is along the lines of what I recall my mother saying.

“Well, look at her! Her spine is completely weird!” my brother responded.

Curious, I asked my mother what he was talking about.

“He thinks that your spine looks weird. He saw it when you were diving into the pool and said it looked crooked. Just to be sure, please come here so I can see.”

I got out of the pool and stood in front of my parents with my back facing them. They asked me to bend over so I did and all I heard were whispers and gasps.

“…do you think she has scoliosis?”, “… how come we’ve never noticed before?”, “… when did this happen?”.

Perplexed I turned around and asked what scoliosis was.

“Scoliosis is when your back is shaped like and ‘S’ and curved like a corkscrew. But I wouldn’t worry about it now, honey. We’ll have you checked out when we get home.” my mother soothed.

So, the remainder of my vacation was spent in my head, wondering how serious this condition is and why even I hadn’t noticed it. Although there were these heavy thoughts in my head, I was still able to enjoy my vacation with my family. We even went to an awesome place where we got to go down water chutes that were carved into the rock purely by erosion.

Once we got back to Drumheller, my mother took me to a doctor and told him she suspected that I had a case of scoliosis. The doctor didn’t believe her thinking that it’s just another parent diagnosing their child before getting a doctor’s opinion. Though, once the X-ray was done, the doctor was astonished. I had a severe case of scoliosis. I was referred to a specialist at the Alberta Children’s Hospital right away and was immediately put on a list for surgery.

THE DOCTOR

The doctor explained everything to me about what was going on and how they were going to fix it. The doctor did many simple tests with me such as walking on my toes or the balls of my feet, bending over to touch my toes, etc. They were surprised that I had such level shoulders given that I had four curves – a cervical curve, one in my coccyx, a thoracic curve and a lumbar curve (neck, tailbone, upper and lower back, respectively) – in my spine.

The only thing, besides the appearance of my spine that was a giveaway of my scoliosis, was my right hip was much higher than the left which was causing me to raise my right heel off the ground and walk only with the ball of my foot. I never really noticed until I was told I had this condition. My doctor also told me how lucky I was that I came in when I did. If we had waited a few more years, my bones would’ve fused and they wouldn’t have been able to do surgery and I would’ve died by the age of 28.

Out of 100 scoliosis cases

Out of 100 scoliosis cases, at least three have pretty severe cases and at least 30% of women have some affliction of scoliosis (10% in men). 1 of 100 cases require surgery (guess who got stuck with that honour – ME!) and the other two get back braces which are these bulky, plastic foam cases which they have to wear possibly for the rest of their lives or until they’re an adult. However, the curve is likely to return if the brace isn’t used properly and often. Fortunately, spinal technology has improved since my surgery and they now have more discrete back braces for adolescents. The surgery consisted of two titanium rods with 15 hooks and screws holding them inside my spine and layering fragments of my vertebrae back over top of the rods so they would be sealed inside of my spinal column.

My surgery was scheduled for June 16^th, 2009. By this time, I had turned 13. I spent my remaining months without the surgery enjoying some gymnastics moves that I would never again be able to do like back walkovers and starting from a standing position and bending back until I caught myself on the ground with my hands.

THE MORNING OF SURGERY

The morning of the surgery had come. The day beforehand was spent from 6 am until noon doing everything from brain scans to taking blood. As I got the flattering attire on and waited for my doctors to show up to take me away, the reality still hadn’t hit me – I was a little girl who was going into an operating room where I could potentially lose my life. Once the doctors showed up and started explaining the procedure is when it hit me. I was about to enter surgery. A few tears were shed because of that realization and I had to say goodbye to my parents.

The few moments I remembered before being put under was asking why the laughing gas wasn’t making me laugh since that’s what it was called. I know now that is a euphemism for its amazing quality to make you unconscious and not feel any pain. And then all I remember is everything going black.

THAT SEEMED FAST

It seemed like I had only blinked and I was back to being groggy but conscious. I wanted someone to know that I was awake and alright so they could go and tell my parents. But when I tried to open my eyes, they wouldn’t lift. I tried and tried for a few more times, but I was so exhausted by the effort. I fell back asleep. Later, I learned that I had already been up and walking a couple of steps.  I have no recollection of that. I was in an ICU room for one night I believe and then I was transported to a post-op room. While I spent a week in the hospital where my mother never left my bedside. Had so many great visitors who came to see me; all of my friends from Drumheller and a couple from Hanna.

MY STAY IN THE HOSPITAL

While I stayed at the hospital I got filled in on what had occurred in my operation. Once I had left with the doctors for my surgery, my mother and father were escorted to a waiting room. They had been told the operation should take no more than 6-8 hours and nurses would pop by to tell them what was happening. So, they waited and waited. The nurses checked in once or twice to say I was doing fine. Then around the sixth hour, a complication had arisen. Apparently, the doctors had my spine 100% straight which was quite a feat considering the curves in my spine were quite large. They decided to wait to see if my body could take the pressure.

Now, I’m not going to get all preachy here, but when I heard about this next part makes me believe that a God does exist. Had the surgeons decided not to wait, decided they wanted to wrap up and end the surgery early, move on to the next case, I would’ve have been a paraplegic for the rest of my life. My blood pressure started to drop from the bottom of my rib cage and down after they had waited. They immediately ripped everything out and let my spine relax and take on some of its curve again until my blood pressure had returned and was at normal levels.

This left me 80% corrected

This left me 80% corrected. I could just imagine my parents in the waiting room when the nurse came and told them there was a slight alteration to the termination of the surgery. It was going to be another 6-8 hours due to my little drop in blood pressure. The greatest thing about the surgery, besides not losing my ability to walk, was that I grew two inches over 13 hours. Thirteen-year-old me was quite proud of that fact.

MY FACE PUFFED UP LIKE A BALLOON

Due to lying on my face for 13 hours straight, my face had puffed up like a balloon, which is why I couldn’t open my eyes the first time after surgery. Of course, my friends all thought it was so hilarious that my face was so huge, and some of them laughed. It was so wonderful to see them that it didn’t bother me. I stayed in the hospital for seven days where I was forced to get out of bed and walk around to make sure that everything was working properly and nothing had gone wrong since. I had to learn a new way to get out of bed so I wouldn’t shift anything in my spine, walking was exhausting and I’d have to say the worst thing was the hospital gown – absolutely no privacy! However, at that point I didn’t care; I only wanted to sleep.

The first time I was given food I was ecstatic! Didn’t know if it was just because I was deprived food for three days or what but the food tasted great. I have no idea why people complained hospital food was gross, I had a lovely supper. But when I tried to eat anything in the morning, it did not settle…

FINALLY I WAS ALLOWED TO GO HOME

Finally, I was allowed to go home! I was so excited to leave and put this whole ordeal behind me and go have fun with my friends. But broken fragments of vertebrae can’t fuse in 7 days. Therefore, I got to enjoy my entire summer walking around the main floor of my house; no running, jumping, skipping, swimming, jogging – basically anything that was fun – none of it! Although I didn’t have the energy to do it anyway. Every time I’d leave the couch just to walk around the house was a chore. I didn’t have much energy because the only meal I could keep down was supper every night. I had approximately four different pills to take everyday.

Since I had to lay on the couch all day or walk around, my hips would be so sore that when it was time for bed I couldn’t sleep because they wouldn’t stop hurting. And when my hips weren’t sore, I would have excruciating muscle spasms due to the muscles reorganizing themselves to the new orientation. But, the one benefit of having the surgery right at the beginning of summer though was that I got to skip all my seventh-grade exams!

RECOVERY PERIOD WAS DONE

Once my entire recovery period was done – which was the middle of winter; an entire year later from which I first started this journey – I could be active once again. My mother and I went to COP (Canada Olympic Park) the minute I had the ok that my back was healed. It didn’t take long for me to tire out.  But those first few ski runs felt so great for not being able to do anything for so long.

Everything I did once I was healed felt different. I knew how to do it and what I needed to do. But I was scared I was going to wreck something in my back. But at some point, I decided I had to relinquish my grip to fear and fall towards courage. I wasn’t going to let a physical imperfection stop me from doing what I loved. I still ski, swim, bike and do everything that I set out to do (except flexibility stunts). Those I think are gone for good).

HOW TO PERSEVERE IN MOMENTS OF AGONY

This experience has made me walk through tremendous adversity as a young girl and will influence me throughout out my life. This is a keystone of my personality. It has taught how to persevere in moment of agony, be brave for the ones you love. Never let physical imperfections define who you are. I think they should be appreciated for making a person unique. Going through a struggle so early in life provides great insight on how to manage difficulties to come.

Final thoughts

I’m so grateful to all the staff and doctors who were a part of my hospital experience, for the wonderful body that I have been provided. For pesky brother who know the worst things to say at the right moments.

References:

Picture – https://eorthopod.com/scoliosis/

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