"So I was diagnosed with Scoliosis in October 2007.
It is an Idiopathic Scoliosis, meaning there is no known etiology (no known cause).
My Scoliosis is in an S shape, so there are two different curves.
I was 11 years old at the time, in fifth grade.
It was a mild case, but enough so that I had to wear a back brace every night.
I would have to wear this brace until I stopped growing, or until I had a surgery to put rods in my back.
I would have really bad back pains during school, so my teacher knew of my Scoliosis.
I didn’t want anyone to know that I had it at the time, so I hadn’t told my class yet.
But one day my teacher was talking and it almost slipped out.
So she looked at me and asked if she could tell the class.
It’s not like I could say no…
So my teacher told everyone.
Some people apologized, some didn’t say anything.
One person left a card on my desk saying that she was sorry.
I appreciated everyone’s support.
On a break in our class time, a kid came up to me (Let’s call him Larry).
He said, “So, what exactly does your condition do?”
Now, when they had told me what I had, my mom had told me a little bit about its history.
She said that a long time ago when they didn’t know what the condition was,
People saw a man that suffered from it as a freak. They called him ‘Elephant Boy’,
From the way his curve forced him to hunch over.
So I told Larry, “Just look up ‘Elephant Boy.’ It’s a person that suffered from it a long time ago.”
Well, Larry wasn’t exactly my best friend forever. He was mean to my best friend.
So at Recess (keep in mind, this is fifth grade), he was mean to my friend.
So when I confronted him, and we fought a bit, he got this look on his face.
I said, “What?”
“You won’t like it…”
“Larry, I don’t like ANYTHING you say.” I said, still angry at him.
“Okay… Elephant Girl!” I grin appeared on his face.
I stormed away shouting at him.
But when I got to the other side of the playground, I broke down into tears.
People comforted me, but what he said stuck with me.
When I got in from Recess, I didn’t say anything.
When I got home, I didn’t say anything either, until later.
My mom was furious.
The next day, my mom came into school.
Everyone looked up silently, all knowing why she was there. Word had spread.
My best friend, who I had defended in my previous fight, seemed forgiving of Larry.
She came up to me and said,”Larry has a note for me to give you.”
I said, “Great, can you take it to the recycling for me?”
So he just kept it.
My teacher was furious at Larry. And so was the Principal. Larry had to sit in a chair for 20 minutes in the
front office until the Principal decided what to do with him. He finally pulled him into his personal office,
with me there. I explained what happened. But then Larry pulled out the note he had tried to give me.
He had written an apology. The Principal had him read it to me.
I said thankyou, but didn’t say that I forgave him. The Principal then said how he was such a good
Kid for writing an apology and he got completely off the hook.
Later, someone told me that Larry had been bragging to a group of kids how all he had to do was
apologize and he was off the hook.
I just ignored him the rest of the year.
We go to different Middle Schools, but one day at my best friends house (the same one
From elementary) Larry wouldn’t stop calling for her. He was a bit of a stalker at the time.
I answered the phone and told him to stop calling.
He recognized me and said, “Elephant Girl says what!” really fast
so when I would say ‘what’ I would be the Elephant Girl. Ha ha, Larry.
Instead, I hung up and locked myself in the bathroom for a couple of minutes.
This year, when my bff (SAME FRIEND) got in a fight with another girl, I went to the bat for
Her. The girl (let’s call her Nicky) called me Elephant Girl. (By the way this is over email)
I called up my bff in tears. She yelled at Nicky (over email), but not before
I wrote a Journal on my Tagged page telling everyone what happened.
I had had enough and wanted to expose both Nicky and Larry.
Nicky emailed me after reading it and said,”Sorry, Larry just told me to call you thatJ.”
But said in the same email how she stuck by him because he was her best guy friend.
By now my curves were about 36 and 26 degrees.
That was the last measurement I had.
But my mom, being a Medical Transcriptionist, said she could notice my curves becoming
very noticeable. But I have to wait until my next doctor’s appointment to find out how
Much my curves have grown.
My mom says that I will only have to wear my brace for another year, because I will probably be
Don’t growing. But at the end of that year, we will probably discuss surgery, if it has gotten really bad.
I am on my second brace, currently.
And that brings us up to date!"
If anyone has any words of support, please leave a comment. Thanks.
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