"Now I can do anything I want and I do exactly the same as I did before."

Chloe V. Chloe V's Story

In 6th grade they tested us at school for scoliosis. They called my mom and told her that I had a curve. That's when my mom first took me to a doctor to see if anything was wrong. He told me that my curve was about 45° and he wanted to try out a brace. We tried that for about a year but when we went back he told us it wasn't working. He wanted to operate and cut the ribs but my mom didn't want that so she decided to get a second opinion.

My mom saw an ad in a magazine for the Baylor Scoliosis Center and I also think she knew somebody who had been there. So we came to Dallas and saw Dr. Shelokov. He looked at my curve and said it was bad, about 65°, and he said he was going to have to do surgery on me.

Then the second time we went back to schedule the surgery, he told us that Dr. Hostin was going to be operating on me. Dr. Hostin was super-nice . He really made me feel at home. They were all so nice to me. They asked me what I did on my holiday and my vacation and how school was going.

The first day after surgery I was in a lot of pain but I started walking right away and got used to it, so I was out after three nights. Recovery was hard at first but everybody would kind of work with me and Dr. Hostin and Dr. Shelokov would visit me and so I felt OK. The pain was really only the first day after surgery. After that I felt fine. I didn't have rehab.

At home I was in bed a lot but I started getting out of bed more and more each day because the doctors told me that if stayed in bed I would get stiff and it would hurt more. I stayed on pain medicine for about a week after I got home and then I stopped. At first I couldn't play sports for about the first six months but now I can do anything I want and I do exactly the same as I did before. I can do anything just the same .