The First Curve Ball

I was a normal kid. Growing up with 2 brothers, I was always outside with the neighbors playing any kind of sport, activity, or night game. I went to school, hung out with my friends, and watched Disney Channel every chance I could get. I was living the life without a care in the world. That lasted until about the third grade. As I do every year, I went into my physical appointment . Everything went normal; got my temperature taken, my height was measured, got a prick in my finger, and a scary shot. Weirdly enough, my doctor asked me to touch my toes as they put a ruler to my back. I couldn’t even think what she was doing but she was a doctor so I trusted her. I found out that the ruler to my back was a test to see if I had this condition called scoliosis. The doctor explained to me that it involves a curvature in your spine and that my spine wasn’t very straight. Little did I know that my father actually had the same condition and had surgery for it when he was in high school. Unfortunately, this was another medical trait he passed onto me with his allergies and asthma. Soon after, I was sent to a different doctor that specializes with the condition. During that appointment, we ran a few X-rays so the doctor could get a closer look at the curvature of my spine. My nine year old self couldn’t have been more excited to put on those funny hospital gowns and get my X-ray. I walked into this room with these crazy machines that looked a little like robots or transformers. I had to put on heavy pieces of clothing to block off certain parts of my body during the X-ray. It was really difficult for me to stay still and hold my breath while the pictures were taken. After the X-rays, my doctor showed my dad and I the image of my spine and the curve degree. This was the routine that we went through every couple of months. Go to the doctor, get an X-ray, look at the X-ray, come back again. It seemed that the curve increased almost every appointment. Luckily, my scoliosis caused me no pain or inconveniences. But as time went on, that was about to change.