"Right before my surgery I went in with a list of things of all the things that I had done before. It was like, "Okay, can I do these things now?" It was a pretty extensive list. I scuba dive, play racquetball, softball. I jumped on the trampoline. To that last one Dr. Shelokov said, of course, "no." But the rest of it, he told me that I wouldn't have a problem with. Scuba diving -- I've done that. Softball, I'm playing now. And bowling -- actually I've got a better game now. He's told me I can ride horses. I haven't done that yet. Chances are I probably will."

Canda J's Story When

I turned 12 I went through extensive tests and found that I had scoliosis. They fitted me for the Milwaukee Brace and it was terrible -- very uncomfortable. The brace it pretty much ended activities. It didn't stop me from being a cheerleader, and I was doing cartwheels and stuff in the brace, so they had to repair it several times.

I guess I was probably about 31 when I kept noticing a little bit of change in my clothes and the way I felt. I could realize that the curve was progressing, They measured it at 64.

About five years later, when I was about 36, that's when I found Dr. Shelokov. And I e-mailed them and they e-mailed me back, set up an appointment. Went in and talked to him. He did the x-ray, and at that time the curve had even progressed more, even within six months, so I knew it was progressing pretty quickly. I think he measured it at 72. I had the surgery because of the progression of the curve, and the pain. It scared me because I didn't know what the curve was going to do. Since it had progressed that much and that quickly over just a few years, I didn't know about deformity of the body and organ damage.

He talked about surgery. He took a little red pencil and he drew everything out for me. He was very straightforward and made me feel really confident. Even during the surgeries we went step by step. So the comfort level was there. I had a lot of confidence in him. Once we talked about it and went through the procedure, it was basically "okay, when can we schedule this ? "

At that time, you know, it was getting pretty painful. But after this surgery, you can tell a difference. Gosh, six weeks after the surgery when you when the pain has ceased a little bit you are getting a little more energy built up. After about two weeks, actually, I started working again at home. My job was basically to sign all the invoices and everything for a construction company. I went back to work on a part-time basis about six weeks later.

Any surgery, you're going to have pain . It doesn't matter if it's for correction of scoliosis or having your appendix taken out, you're going to have some pain. But the beauty of it is when you get over the pain of the surgery or the soreness and you know you don't have that pain that you were having two days before you went into surgery. You're not having that pain anymore. It's gone. In my case it was gone, and still is. I have little twinges, you know, but that's just I'm still sore because I work out and play softball and stuff like that. So I'll get little aches and pains, but I don't have anything like what I had before, not in my back -- thanks to Dr. Shelokov .

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