After being diagnosed with a spinal curvature, a scoliosis brace is often the next traditional treatment method recommended. Here’s a typical story that we often hear – being told by Amanda.
This is Amanda's scoliosis brace story...
This was my third time to the orthopedic doctor’s office.
We had just been waiting and watching my curve get worse. I was hoping that he would finally do something! It was that doctor who told me I needed a scoliosis brace. After a few tears streaked down my face he handed me a box of tissues and said, “You’re being very brave, you won’t regret your decision. This is typical protocol. Just make sure you wear it as recommended”.
So I went to another specialist who measured me and fitted me into the torture device that they like to refer to as a scoliosis brace. I had to “break myself into it” by wearing it for one hour the first night, then for an extra hour the next, a few more the day after that, until I was used to wearing the scoliosis brace for twenty-three hours a day. In that one hour of freedom, I was supposed to work out and shower.
I looked ridiculous in my scoliosis brace. It stuck out from my shoulders, and pushed the top half of my butt down. I couldn’t breath, could hardly walk, and had a hard time sitting down. Every time I sat down in my desk for class, I had to shimmy myself up out of it so I didn’t pinch my chest. I was incredibly self-conscience. I wore loose clothes and big sweaters with hoods to hide my hunch-looking back. This happened in high school, and it was terrible. I felt like I was walking like a robot. I was constantly out of breath and unable to catch my breath because there was no room for my ribcage to expand and make room for my lungs. People would knock on the front of it and call me plastic-abs. I pretended not to mind, but the constant comments penetrated deep. I couldn’t sleep. I would toss and turn to no avail trying to find comfort. When it got warmer, I still wore huge sweaters to attempt to hide my scoliosis brace and would overheat. It pinched my left sciatic nerve and I was constantly in pain. I had to quit orchestra because I couldn’t play the violin and breathe at the same time. During gym, I had to struggle to strap myself back into the back brace without the help of a parent and answer awkward questions about what on earth I was wearing. During this time of my life, I was constantly looking up different surgical procedures online to try and find an alternative solution so I wouldn’t have to wear this scoliosis brace anymore.
The summer in between high school and college, my back started bothering me. I felt awkward and uncomfortable in my own body – whether attempting to do sports, sitting down, standing at work, or just plain lying down to sleep. I had a bad feeling that things were worsening, so I went back to the doctor. I heard him and some nurses whispering in the hall about my condition, as if I were some kind of odd creature, poor and condemned to a horrible fate. I cried and felt betrayed by him, and also by my own body. My scoliosis had progressed, but he assured me that there was nothing I could do, and that the progression was slight. I started doing some additional research and found out that many times scoliosis braces end up making things worse - causing muscle atrophy and essentially ruining any kind of support I may have had on my own before the ‘treatment’.
After a year and a half of wearing the scoliosis brace, the post films showed that my curvature had progressed past 40 degrees and the surgeon really started to push my mom and dad to have the surgery as soon as possible. I thought the surgery was inevitable. On that day, I discovered CLEARTM Institute’s alternative treatment for scoliosis.
Click here to learn how CLEARTM Institute’s treatment differs from the traditional approach.