I'm Samantha and I'm in grade 11 and I had scoliosis surgery three months ago.
When I first found out I had scoliosis, I was actually, I thought it was kind of
cool because um I had to get a brace and I'd never known anyone who had a brace.
And like when I actually got it, it hurt a lot and it was really uncomfortable,
but like when I first heard about it I I was excited. I don't know. I think it was
12 and I had it for two years and I had to wear it like all the time basically.
When I found out I might have to have the surgery, like I thought it was more of
an option, um and I was thinking that maybe I'd do it like in the future,
but then all of a sudden like we came back for after that and like my curve
had gotten even worse. And it was sort of like not an option anymore. Like it was
something I had to do. Um, but I, I wasn't that scared because I couldn't even
imagine how it would be, you know, cause I'd never really had anything like that.
We knew we had to do because the curve was just getting worse and like I didn't
want to have to deal with it when I'm older and it would be harder to recover
from it. Like it's better to get it done while I'm still young and like I
can heal fast. We weren't told that we had to do it. We were given the option
and during a clinic visit we, it was brought to our attention that surgery
was in the future. And it was our decision whether we were going to
proceed immediately or could we wait till she was 20? Yes. But it was going to
get worse and worse. I had to look at what year of her life was it going to occur?
Was it going to be between graduating high school and going into
university? Was she going to want to go through that when she was in University?
This was her moment, you know, before grade 11 and it worked out perfectly. Uh-huh.
I don't regret making that decision at all because like the results are like so
much better. Like I'm so much happier with my body you know. Like I'm a lot
taller and I'm straighter and. I mean my flexibility is like really limited, but I
don't know, I just. Like cause it was like a summer, you know, of my life whereas like
now I won't have to worry about it anymore.
Whereas if I didn't get it like it'd be a problem for the rest of my life, you know.
[doctor speaking]
Amazing. It's much better.
Mom likes it. [inaudible] That's what they put in? How many did they put in? There's a pair of them at each level.
So there are six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve screws and some hooks above. She dings when she goes through security.
Really?
Yeah everything was different with my body it was really weird like I
would stand up and I didn't feel like me. Like cause I grew like two inches and it
just it's so weird when you're higher up you know. And I'm. Yeah. I was straighter
and like everything. And she has a collar bone now.
Yeah and my back. And shoulder blades. Yeah. And she didn't before.
Yeah cause it was all crooked and yeah. When you're in the hospital the nurses
kind of push you like every day. Like they're really nice, but I mean they
want you to recover quickly. Cause after the surgery like all you feel like doing
is just lying in bed and sleeping and not doing anything. But they encourage
you to get up and to walk and like each day like I'd have to walk like down the
hall like I'd go further and further each time it like she'd come with me and
like I didn't want to do it. I kept wanting to go back because like you're
really dizzy and you don't feel well and you're really so
you just don't want to be doing that you know. The medicine. Like everyone said
that it would make me feel like really weird. For the first week it was kind of
strange and like I was always sweating and like I had really weird dreams, but
then I think my body got used to it and like, cause when I went home I was
something for like two weeks or a week. A week. Maybe a week and a half. She came off of her medicine
very quickly. But like it wasn't that hard to come off of it. Cause everyone said
that was gonna be difficult for me because I was gonna want to keep taking
it. But I didn't really because it kind of made me nauseous and. I was worried
about that. Yeah. Weaning her off because I had heard so much about
morphine and. Because she was on hydromorphone. She came off of it very
quickly. And her pain tolerance was diminishing very rapidly once we left
the hospital.And she's down to extra-strength Tylenol and and then it
was over. Uh-huh. I actually remember really clearly, like
right when I woke up from the surgery, I remember um cause I. I don't know.
The pain was actually. For me, I was on so much medicine I think, and I was so out
of it when I first woke up, that like the pain for me it was probably only like a
two or three. Like I was really happy when I woke up. She was. And then it didn't start to hit
me, the pain, until like like two days later or something, you know. The first
few days in the hospital. Well one of the days was um. They told us day three was
going to be our horrible day. Yeah. And day three we cruised through.
I think it was day five. Day five was a very bad day. Neither of us will ever forget day five because she couldn't get hold of
her pain. And once she got it, got hold of her, it wasn't good. And it turned out
that they actually had to make an adjustment, but once it got under control
that was the, you know, it was managed again. I I don't even remember like it
was all a blur. I just remember I was like crying and she was crying. It was bad.
And because they couldn't do anything until the doctor came to see me but like.
So we had to wait and. That was when I started taking the pills right?
Yeah. That worked a lot better for me. I liked it more. The pain pump.
I think I was in more pain. When I started taking the pills because I liked it cause
I could feel them working and like I could know when I should take them and
like how much I need. Whereas with the pump, you don't really know how much
medicine you're getting it's weird. It was really weird when I got home and I
had to depend on my mom and my nanny for like everything. My mom was
always at the house, like she didn't go out at all, like the whole summer because
like she couldn't leave me alone in the room you know. Like I couldn't. I had to
like help. She had to help me get up. Like I
couldn't go to the bathroom I couldn't like walk anywhere and like. I
couldn't do anything, so she had to be there. Like I couldn't get things for
myself and I couldn't change by myself and like. And then. Like at first I couldn't
shower myself at all and I was really nervous to go in the shower cause like I thought
it would hurt my scar you know. And then she would have to come in the shower
with me and help me because I couldn't lift my arms to wash my hair and it was
weird because I'm used to being kind of more independent you know. I'd say a
month before she was confident that she could, you know. I remember one day I
surprised you I came down the stairs by myself. Yeah! I'm sitting in the kitchen,
she came downstairs alone. And I was. Because I was always by her side as she
walked down the steps. Yeah, and every day it's just something else happened that
she did on her own, remember? And it was. Everything was like. One day she
came down dressed. Yeah. Like at first, like you can't do anything for like two or
three weeks and then all of a sudden like one day you're like "You know I feel
like I can do this by myself." Like one day I got up I'm like "I think I can go
to the washroom by myself. I don't think I'm gonna call my mom." And like I tried
to do and I did it. And so, then I started doing that and like you just. Every day
you make more progress. I remember by day seven in the hospital,
like after a week, I was really ready to go home you know we were afraid to go
home. Yeah. I was I was kind of nervous to adjust to like my house. But we stayed an
extra day.Yeah.They came in one morning and said "Okay.Well it's time to go."
I wasn't ready. She wasn't mentally ready.The day that she spent here, we needed. Definitely.
She was very ready. Cause. Yeah. Because like. When you're in the hospital, like
there's all these people coming and take care of you and like when you go back to
your house, like it's an adjustment cause you have to do more
things and like. It's just not made the same way, you know. Like it's not easy to
move around and stuff. And I was just so surprised when I came in told me to go
home, so I spent the day just relaxing and like getting ready and then by the
next day it was like. Yeah. I think it was really much better.