Fatma

I keep having flashbacks of things that occurred during my time in the hospital, 10 months ago.

Since I’m still not completely ready to talk about it, I won’t go into complete detail, but 10 months ago I had scoliosis correctional surgery. Scoliosis is the “abnormal” curvature of the spine, which meant that my spine was in a “S”-type shape. I found out I had it when I was 12, in September 2014. The doctors said I’d had it since birth, but it starts to develop more when the person goes through puberty. I can’t explain how different I felt after I came home from the doctor that day. I was so envious of my classmates for having such minuscule problems.

The time between my diagnosis and my surgery was very rough for me: People at school made fun of me for wearing my back brace, I was always in excruciating pain, and I felt like everyone felt sorry for me. Even some of my family members made me feel weird and didn’t except that I’m still the same girl, just with a health issue. And I say health issue because scoliosis doesn’t just affect someone’s body, it can push into the person’s lungs if the case is severe, like mine was.

In August, I had my surgery and stayed home from school for six weeks (one of the coolest times of my life). But there were things that happened in the hospital that I’m trying to forget. I don’t like remembering the way I couldn’t walk with ease, or how I couldn’t sit up for more than five minutes without getting tired. The worst was having to have an enema, but I won’t go into detail because it’s a bit too disgusting. I’m completely back to normal now, but I guess it’s hard to forget the pain I was in.

Surgery was the best choice I could’ve made, but it had a stronger mental impact than I thought it would. ♦