Hi, I'm Ava Brooks, a 13-year-old girl.
I was told by my doctor that I would have to get a back brace for my scoliosis because I had a 26 degree curve in my spine. I had been going in for check-ups for weeks knowing that I might have to get a brace, but I never thought that it would really happen. It was really hard for me at first... would the brace make me look fat? Would guys ever like me? Would girls be overly nice to me? Would I go CLUNK when I sat down?
I worried about all these things the day I found out about the brace. A few days later, I went in to get fitted for my brace. I had to take off my clothes, put on a long, thin dress, and have plaster rolled over me. That may sound strange and painful, but believe me, it wasn't! The worst thing that happened was that I got damp from the moisture in the wet plaster.
About a week or so later, I went to get my brace. It's white plastic, and it comes down to the bottom of my hips and up to just below my chest. (The man who made it for me drilled holes into it so that I would not get so hot and sweaty.) It opens in the back and I have to velcro it closed.
At first I couldn't breathe in it. But now I've had it for about 3 weeks (3 little weeks!) and I sometimes forget that I'm wearing it. So, for all you girls out there who feel like you're wearing corsets... hang on! Pretty soon you'll forget all about it.
~*~Ava B.
P.S. Soon I'll be posting ways to cover up your brace... fashionably!! So check in!
