27 Jen Gorman Dancer, Pilates Instructor, Actor

Diagnosed at age 11. Her Scoliosis was discovered by her ballet teacher. She went to a chiropractor who gave her a few exercises & took some images only to find out that the first set of images, the cobb angel wasn’t measured correctly.

From there she went to an orthopedic only being given the choices of “wait & see” or get fitted for a brace. If she decided to move forward with surgery, her orthopedic would suggest a “selective thoracic fusion.” With research, she found that Idaho only offered surgery using Herrington rods, where as California used a new CD method, known as the Cotrel Dubousset method “the cages.” At age 12, she would have surgery. She later found out that she would require a bone graph which required a separate incision.

As a dancer in her pre surgery living, there was no pain. Post surgery she was in a brace 6 months. She doesn’t remember feeling her limitations which was due to her hyper mobility. By the time she was in high school is when the pain started.

It’s been 30+ years since her surgery. The way she moves has changed significantly. She has a variety of routines that she uses to keep herself out of pain. Some of those include, walking, hiking, skiing.

A final thought she shares with us:

Continue to explore your journey with Scoliosis as your body changes. Continue to move & don’t sweat the small stuff.

I wasn’t given a lot of limitations. I had to find them.

Where can you find Jen?

Instagram: scoliosisandbackcare

www.scoliosisandbackcare.com/links/

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