GV junior and women’s basketball player Abbi Ellis reflects on her journey with scoliosis, which involved years of physical and emotional struggle and resulted in major spinal surgery.

“I found out when I was an 8th grader, and I had a 25 (degree) curve, which is not very much. Then when I was a freshman, I moved to a new town, and I went to KU Med (University of Kansas Medical Center), and they found out I had a 51-degree curve. I ended up doing physical therapy, and they didn’t think that I would get any worse. I went again my senior year, and I still had a 51, and that’s when I ended up moving here for college. Last year in basketball, I was in a lot of pain. I had a lot of spasms, and I started to lift more. My back was killing me all the time, so I ended up going to get it looked at again at the University of Iowa, and they told me I should have had the surgery years ago. I had grown from a 51 to a 62 within a year. They said it would just keep growing and growing, and if I wanted to have kids and put that much weight on myself through pregnancy, it could affect me. Future issues could put my life in danger. So, I ended up going through with it (surgery).

“My surgery was eight and a half hours. I started at 1, and I didn’t wake up ’til 10. When I did it, I stayed in the children’s unit because they usually catch this in babies, but for me, it was a really late surgery. I was in the hospital for a week after, and then I came back here, and I was housebound. I couldn’t drive because I was on such heavy drugs. The first semester, I wasn’t allowed to carry a backpack or my books or anything.

“I’m still worried about basketball because in February, I got released to completely play again. I can run, but sprinting hurts. I have no feeling whatsoever in my back, and that kind of scares me. It’s hard for me to go post up on people because I can’t actually feel them. I can feel pressure, but I can’t feel them touch me.”