One Mans Story

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42 Nottingham

I grew up during a time when scoliosis was basicaly:'just keep an

eye on it for now...' Consequently I was left to my own devices (or

at least my poor parents were. Even if they knew what to ask the

consultant, it just wasn't easy thing to do during the 1960s & 70s)

my curviture continued to get worse. I would sit once a year in an

awful waiting room at Harlow Wood Hospital near Mansfield, sometimes

for up to three hours just for X-Rays and five minutes with

the 'great man' himself (I'll refrain from names of course...) I

would be measured in every way possible, then stared at by a whole

variety of students like I was a piece of meat (which I suppose I

was to them...) finally I was told to come back the next year. This

went on throughout my life every year. I read that the condition was

mostly prevalent amongst females, and can be a genetic problem, but

I reasoned why me? I'm not female, and there is no record of

scoliosis in my family going back two generations. So, like the

doctors I just accepted it until things started to go wrong. The

usual scenario really, back pain, chest pain, shortness of breath

etc etc. Then one glorious year a new consultant on my scene decided

he could slap a few titanium rods to my spine, screw them in tight

using wires and pieces of me! Didn't I feel really pleased...(no!)

Anyway, he said that without the operation I might lose the use of

my legs, and since I had spent all my life getting used to my legs,

and really finding them kind of useful, I agred to undergo the

operation. It took nearly 12 hours due to one thing or another, and

I was on another planet for about a week afterwards, then I entered

hell when the drugs wore off, and finally I came back down to earth.

Home with the wife... I'm now finished with the hospitals and tend

to just accept the curviture. The pain is far less, and I'm still

walking around. The consultant told me that he could have done a

full spinal correction if he had seen me sooner when I was a

teenager. As it was I was past it at 28 yrs of age, so all he could

do was to stem the decline in the curviture. I'm sorry I'm rabbiting

on now, so if anyone wants to know more about the operation I had or

after effects then please feel free to e-mail me.

Posted 01/12/00

His email address:

pjmaher@...