Growing up in my family was hard. Yeah I know all families have their problems, but in mine, it was theat my mom had scoliosis and was partially disabled.
Scoliosis is a back problem. Her back had the normal out and in curves every one has, but her back also had left to right curves. She was diagnosed with scoliosis at 13, my age now. It wasn't a serious case at first, hardly noticeable by even a specialty doctor. It didn't worsen until around 15 years later, after starting our family. By the time she was 45, theree years ago, it was 49 degrees to thee left, 61 degrees to the right, an "s" curve. On her right side she had less than an inch between her hip and the bottom of her ribs.
I had just finished the 5th grade, and at thee end of the previous summer she had promised me that she would teach me to water ski thee next summer. Which was that summer.
I remember the April afternoon she sat me down to tell me big news. The news was that on Monday, June 9th she was going to have a major surgery to make her back better. She had me checked for scoliosis because the muscles on the left side of my back are larger than the ones on the right. I am being checked again soon because my mom thinks I have it now.
Finally the end of school rolled around, meaning my birthday party was coming up. It was on June 6th, just two and a half days before her surgery. She made it very special for me, my first slumber party.
When Monday came around my entire family was nervous. the surgery lasted 9 hours. I was there for 7. That night I had a softball game and I still went and played. Half way therough I had a break down because none of my family was theere and my mom had never missed a game. It was the biggest game of the season. We were playing our rivals. I was playing catcher and actually threw someone out at 2nd and hit my first home-run. That night was the first time they had ever had the game ball actually be the ball we played with, the one that I hit my home-run on. They gave it to me, the ump presented it to me because he heard my story. I visited my mom that night and then went to my grandmothers house. I spent the next ten weeks there. I had uncountable nightmares and mental break downs and my grandma is the only one who was next to me through it all. I half moved into her house, with most my clothes over there. We visited my mom as much as comfortable for me, because thee mental pain of seeing her that way was horrible. As the summer went along we visited more and more. That summer my mom and I grew closer and closer. When she was moved to the rehab hospital they had a blacony the residents could go to and I would wheel her in her wheelchair to it and we'd sit there and talk for an hour, or until she got tired. We did that at least once a week. Our favorite time to go out there was at sunset. We watched countless of them that summer, whether it was from the balcony or from her room window. Sunsets have an entirely new meaning to me now.
It is now just under three years later, and shes gotten worse. The doctors messed up. She no longer has the "in" curve in her lower back. She has two rods and 13 screws in her back and a 14 inch long scar down her spine. She needs more surgery now. Her pain is worse than it has ever been. I still to theis day am waiting until she is able to teach me to water ski. I still have nightmares of my memories and I have had the nightmares I had back that after she told me she was having surgery and that summer but slowly I'm recovering mentally. That summer taught me a lot. I learned one form of love. I realized how much my family means to me. Finally, it hit me how horrible my life would be without my mom, my idol.