“You have a 100-degree curve — and 60 is considered critical. Miraculously, your internal organs are still intact, but we need to do surgery before it’s too late…”

M

y new husband and I set out to live our happily ever after. Hashem quickly let us know that this wasn’t our life plan.

Our new neighbors knocked on our door, thrusting plates of welcome cookies in our hands. When my husband answered the door and thanked them for their offerings in slurred speech, they all did superb acting jobs, and then backed away slowly.

“You’re so special,” they said, or “What’s your story?” There was no right question. Welcome to life in the middle — we weren’t that special-needs couple, nor could we be called normal.

My past quickly caught up with us. My chiropractor pushed my shoulders one way and my hips another and happily pronounced me straight. But there was no denying it: I wasn’t straight, and I was in way too much pain. Pain that stopped me functioning and from being the wife I so desperately wanted to be. So I tried another chiropractor. “If you do my exercises every single day for rest of your life, there’s a chance you’ll be fine,” Chiropractor No. 7 said.

“But what if I get pregnant and have to go on bed rest? What if I’m sick...?”

It didn’t seem doable. It cost a fortune. And there were no guarantees… I cried daily over what I couldn’t be, over the seemingly impossibly path ahead. Gently, my husband pointed the way out.

It was time to take a look at the options in his book. With years of taking care of his own medical needs, he showed me another way.

“The doctors have answers. I wouldn’t be where I am today without their help. Let’s see what they have to offer you,” he soothingly suggested after yet another crying session.

My eyes hurt from the tears. Perhaps it was time to try something new. My husband quickly used his contacts to get us an appointment that week.

The orthopedic doctor was kind and brutally honest. “I usually only see patients with this extreme degree of scoliosis coming in from India,” he said. “You have a 100-degree curve — and 60 is considered critical. Miraculously, your internal organs are still intact, but we need to do surgery before it’s too late…”