Introduction

"Scoliosis is an important and common orthopedic problem. At it's most typical, it is a deformity of adolescent girls, coming at an age when they are self-conscious and have a dawning awareness of the need to be attractive. Its development in a previously healthy girl can seem a catastrophe, perhaps more so because at this sensitive and inarticulate age, it is rarely expressed in words and is exaggerated by its very unexpectedness and the mystery to its cause.... There is usually no complaint, no hesitation on the part of the young girl faced with the rigors of treatment, a measure of her deep desire to be made normal. Although the patient may be grateful for what the surgeon has tried to do, everyone with experience in this aspect of surgical endeavor will have had many failures and disappointment."

An introduction to a medical text about scoliosis written in 1976 still strikes a chord with a post-operative scoliosis patient reading it in October 2013. I write to share information about scoliosis that I come across. Maybe these notes would come in handy one day to the young person looking for an answer, worried parents looking for a solution. I don't profess to be able to provide either of them, but hope that in the sharing, will help ease the anxiety.