2. When was it first diagnosed? Well, we got a letter from my school Memorial day weekend of 2000... I am not sure of the precise day my doctor diagnosed it though. My middle school was doing a screening and they apparently thought I had it, so they sent a letter home, but we didn't get it until almost three weeks after the screening.
3. How did you feel when you found out you had scoliosis? It didn't really hit me what was going on I guess. I thought it was no big deal, but I think I felt that way because I knew people who also had it.
4. What treatment was used initially? None.
5. What was your curvature initially? 78 degrees on top and 54 degrees on the bottom when it was first detected.
6. What was your curvature when the doctors suggested surgery? The same as when first diagnosed.
7. When did the doctors first suggest the surgery? When they took X-rays... my first doctor recommended it. Then we went to see a specialist who did the same.
8. How did you feel about needing the surgery? Basically the same as when I was first diagnosed. I thought it was no big deal, it was somewhat like a trance. I didn't even care. I felt that way up to the point that they put me to sleep.
9. What type of surgery did you have? Spinal instrumentation and fusion from T-1 to L-3, if you want to use technical terms. [Editor's note: Larissa did have a combination of the anterior and posterior surgery.]
10. How many rods/instrumentation were used? Two rods were used, one on either side of the spine as well as screws and all the "accessories". lol
11. Describe everything you remember from the day of surgery (from the time you arrived at the hospital to the time after surgery).
Well, we had to arrive at the hospital at 6:00am. I got up fairly early and took a long bath, thinking of how tired I was. I packed some new pajamas and slippers I bought as well as some other neccessities. I couldn't eat anything, so we went straight to the hospital. Once there, I was taken to the Children's Ward to relax until they were to being to prep me. They put a device on my arm where they were to put the IV later on. It was supposed to send electromagnetic waves through my skin to numb the area. They used it on the kids rather than numbing it with a shot. I later recommended they use shots because it numbs it better, lol. Once the IV was inserted, I got to relax a little while until they did more prep work. I was brought into another room where someone was to take three vials of blood as well as urine samples. Those were to be my final teats before surgery. Soon after, a woman came in to attach electrodes to my scalp. She explained to me that these were to alarm the surgeon if he/she was getting too close to the spine so as not to paralyze the patient. It was a quite painful process because it involved scraping the areas of the scalp raw so they could get an accurate reading. After that, I relaxed for what seemed like [an] eternity. Soon a nurse came in and said that at about 2:00pm I would go upstairs to begin prep for surgery. At about 3:00pm, someone came in and said, "Okay, it's time to go!"...or something of that sort. Anyway, they put me onto a guerny and started wheeling me down a long hallway. I hadn;t realized that they had already slipped me the anesthesia. As we were going down the hallway, I remember trying to look up, curious to see where we were going. They wheeled me into a large room with many bright lights ([the] OR). The doctors came and said hello to me and began talking to each other. I remember listening to their converstation and then their voices slowly drifting away. The next thing I remember is my head surgeon attempting to wake me up. Then a big thud and I was jerked around a little (the nurses had accidently run me into the wall in the ICU room. The funny part is, I wasn't afraid...up until the end, I was just curious. :-)
12. What was your curvature post-op? I think, if I remember correctly, the top was 37 degrees and the bottom was 18 degrees. What a BIG diffrence!
13. What date was the surgery? July 19th, 2000
14. What hospital did you have the surgery at? The surgery was at St. Joseph's Hospital, and I recovered at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).
15. Who were your doctors? My doctors were Dr. Boyce, Dr. Ewald, Dr. Palathox, and multiple others.
16. How many days were you in the hospital? 10 days
17. What pain medications did you have? Morphine mainly
18. Did you loose any weight? If so, how much? I weighed 103 lbs before surgery. After surgery, I weighed 76 lbs.
19. Did you have any major complications? If so, explain? Pneumonia, air bubble outside if the lung once the chest tube was removed, and allergic reactions to the medications.
20. Did you have any follow up treatment? I had a brace.
21. What would you tell other scoliosis patients about your experence? Opt for the surgery rather than the brace if possibe, but, before any treatment, research and talk to others before deciding what to do. I know that meeting all of the people I did helped pepare me a lot mentally.
