"I wasn't aware that I had scoliosis throughout my lifetime, my early childhood and my adolescence, early 20's and all that. I knew I had a deformity, but I was never doctored for that. I often did things not knowing my condition. Water skiing. I have skydived. I have had horses several times over my life, and never enjoyed them for any length of time because my back pain would be so terribly bad."

Carolyn M's Story

Eventually I couldn't do the everyday, common things. It got to the point as I grew older that I was unable to run my vacuum cleaner, I went to xeriscaping my yard because I could no longer do simple things like plant flowers.

I had to have all of my suits for my work altered . My jeans were all altered because I had the appearance of one leg being almost two inches longer than the other leg. I had a wonderful tailor who took care of that for me, but it was very expensive. You had to buy a different kind of shoe. They have to be softer. I wore heels for years and I look back now and wonder how in the world I did that. My daughter was married last year in western Maryland and I had to find a dress to wear for the wedding. I had shopped and shopped and had basically given up and just did not know what I was going to do for a dress. And I didn't find a dress that hung on me enough without major alterations until the last day, and it was a dress that required no alteration only because of the fabric.

So over time it was a lot to deal with, and you don't realize it because it comes so gradually. I let it go for several years until I called myself directly to Consulting Orthopedics, and set up an appointment, and went to meet Dr. Shelokov and his staff in March. And after meeting the staff and I was given some names of some previous patients and was very pleased with the stories that they told me -- their recovery, their surgery success, and also the up front attitude of the doctor.

And I made my decision based on meeting with the doctor, and discussed it with my best friend Martha, and asked her what she thought. She said, "Well, he seems to be very honest." And she and I both are kind of skeptical people when it comes to our health, but that day I made my decision that I was going to have the surgery.

It was suggested by Martha that I contact my insurance company prior to talking to the doctor and his office staff, and I did not do that. I wanted the doctor to talk to my insurance company, and they did, and to this date, I have not communicated with my insurance company at all. What a relief. I don't think I could have dealt with that on top of recovery. Recovery in itself is a process that you just deal with day to day. You get better every single day, and everything has been just great, and I haven't made one phone call.

I am pleased with my recovery. And the staff . Anytime I've ever called with a question, they have been more than helpful. Even in the hospital when I was transferred to rehabilitation, the staff followed up and came to visit me to make sure that everything was going as planned, that I was comfortable. Even though I had been relocated to a different hospital for rehab, they still made the trip and made sure my progress was going as scheduled.

Everything came out fine. I went in the day of surgery, and that was it . I was in the hospital for 15 days -- and that was including a week of rehabilitation. And then I was sent home and have had my follow-up visits with the doctor, and I'm now permitted to drive, and that was after being out of the hospital three weeks.

Often before the surgery, when I would sit down, I would have to let my body fall into the seated position as well as my body would have to fall in, or fall into the standing position. I don't have to do that now. it was almost like you had to sit down gradually and let your body fall into the seated position, and then it was hard. But now I don't have to do that. I can get up. I can stand up. And I can stand at the kitchen sink without having to take a break when loading the dishwasher. It's really nice .