Dancing and my curvy spine

I found out I had scoliosis in January after my swimming teacher noticed a curve in my spine (he too has scoliosis so knew what he was looking for). My first X-ray confirmed I had a curve of 58° which meant my curve was classed as severe. My consultant referred me to start physiotherapy immediately, got me an appointment to have an MRI scan and also wanted me to get a brace. He didn’t think surgery was a good idea yet because I still have a lot of growing to do so if we can delay surgery it would be ideal. I got my brace beginning of March which is a CMP Brace.

I had a lot of tears at the start whilst I got used to wearing this hard piece of plastic around my body, but I was surprised at how quickly I adjusted to life with a brace. I now wear it 20-23 hours a day.

I do a lot of dancing (6 days a week) and scoliosis / my brace does not stop me from doing all this. My consultant is very supportive of my active lifestyle and has encouraged me to keep it up.

I had my first in-brace X-ray in May and I was so happy to see that my curve is reduced in angle to 38°! My consultant was pleased with this and has said he doesn’t need to see me for 6 months and I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing. He has told me that I am still very likely to need surgery when I stop growing, but confident that if my spine keeps behaving in the brace then I won’t need growth rods in the meantime.

I also have an Instagram account should other children wish to learn a thing or two about my journey – @scoliosis_and_me.”