New Member

[Guest guest]

Hey all - Let's give a big scoli welcome to a new member who joined

today! You will see her on here as grammiekins (could that be

because she has 3 beautiful grandchildren and one on the way?)but her

name is . We have a very unusual background together in that

we were good friends from about 7th grade on. We both had Idiopathic

Scoliosis but didn't know it really. While I advertised mine with

the wearing of the Milwaukee Brace back then, her parents chose to go

the denial route at first. Anyhow, to make a long story short, we

both married and had sons practically at the same time. We were also

seeing the same scoliosis doctors. When our boys were 2 years old we

both gave up the ship and had our original surgeries scheduled at the

same hospital as close together as we could (about 2 weeks apart).

Our favorite memory is we had surgery sometime in September. Come

halloween we dressed our boys alike as ghosts and we figured us both

being in Milwaukee braces was good enough costumes for us, and we've

never forgotten walking the streets holding each other up while our

sone trick-or-treated. We've still got pictures after all these

years.

Anyhow life went on and we fell out of touch over the years. Then

came our 30 year high school reunion back in 2000. I was preparing

for my first revision surgery, and I found that you didn't even

mention the word 'surgery' around her. She was terrified at the

thought of more back surgery (even though she so obviously needed it.)

Over the ensuing years I kept at her until she began calling me her

cheerleader. When she and her husband came to visit me at UCSF this

last time she even brought me a small pair of pom poms as a gift!

And lo and behold, they were both so very impressed with actually

seeing my progress 3 days after surgery........that she actually set

the ball in motion with her insurance! And joined our little group

here to learn what she could learn. She may be more of a lurker at

first, but , you won't meet a more knowledgeable, caring group

than this who will be here for you basically 24/7 to answer what

questions they can and give you the support you need as you begin

your long, treacherous journey down this incredibley long and bumpy

road. Welcome aboard Girlfriend!!

Much love -

~~