So...I don't want to paint an overly rosy picture. The healing after my surgery took months. It wasn't a pleasant experience, the healing was very painful and I had complications that led to a period of very severe depression. Given the alternative, it was just something that had to be done. Once recovered , it is great that I no longer need to wear a brace which was also very painful. My surgery was quite sometime ago, so i am hopeful for those who followed me that the hospitals may have marginally improved since my surgery.

Generally speaking...not anymore. Many years ago, scoliosis could cause such a severe curvature of the spine that it could compress the lungs and often led to death. About 35-40:years ago a surgery was introduced in which rods are fused to the back to prevent this. It is a serious but fairly routine surgery now. It is also one of the reasons i think everyone ought to completely ignore life expectancies for individuals with SMA as many of those statistics don't account for advances like that surgery.

Did you feel better after the surgery?

It was quite a long time ago...so my memory is a bit fuzzy...it occurred when I was in eigth grade, so I was about twelve or thirteen years old. My older sister who also has SMA type 2 was only the second or third person in the US to have the surgery. Before my surgery i had to wear a very thick heavy backbrace which was aweful as my school had no airconditioning and our home only had airconditioning in one room at the time.

How old were you when you had scoliosis surgery?