A life of dance, even with scoliosis
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay News) -- Sarah Pat ellos was 9 years old when her pediatrician noticed some unevenness in her spine and sent her for X-rays and an assessment, said her mother, Debbie.
After months of screenings and second opinions, the diagnosis came back. Sarah was suffering from scoliosis, and she would need to wear a brace for the rest of her formative years.
"I was scared," said Sarah, now 17 and living with her family on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts . "I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what to think."
Halfway through fourth grade, Sarah was fitted for her back brace. "The main concern was she hadn't hit the major part of her growth and the curve was progressing," her mother said. "The only choices you're really given are to brace or do nothing. We wanted to avoid surgery, if we could."
The back brace took some getting used to, Sarah said.
"It was definitely uncomfortable at first, but it's like breaking in a new pair of shoes," she said. "After a while, you get used to it. I slept in it. I wore it to school. I was pretty used to it."
Her friends helped a lot. She didn't get teased for wearing the brace, which was worn under her clothing and fairly unnoticeable. "If you don't make it seem weird, other kids won't see it that way," Sarah said.
Wearing the brace didn't keep Sarah from following her love of dance, either. She's been dancing since she was a toddler and started competitive dancing in jazz, tap and ballet when she was 11, about two years after she started wearing the brace. "I would just take it off when it was time to dance and put it back on after," she said.
Sarah wore a brace until she was just about to turn 16. When she removed it, though, it wasn't because she was healed. Despite the brace, Sarah had gone through a growth spurt that sent her spinal curvature out of control, and surgery now would be required.
It was pretty serious stuff, this surgery. Sarah was required to donate two pints of her own blood in advance, for use during the seven-hour surgical procedure. "I was terrified about her getting that surgery," Debbie Pat ellos said.
The doctors placed two titanium rods on either side of her spine and screwed them in, fusing her spine, Sarah said.
She went through a difficult six-week recovery, her mother said, but bounced back very well. She had the surgery in July 2007, and by October she was back to dance practice, and she participated in a competition in December.
Sarah is happy with how things turned out, although she knows she'll have to take care to look after her back for the rest of her life. Even now, her lower back gets sore from pressure caused by the spinal fusion, but she's not in constant pain.
"She's done remarkably well," her mother said. "She's back to competitive dancing, and she's loving it. It's incredible how well she's done."
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