There was a little girl. She dreamed of having lots of babies while she played with her dolls and teddy. One night she had a very vivid dream indeed.
In it she was a grown up sitting in a rocking chair. In a greenhouse or a garden. She could hear her parents and sisters and grandparents not far away talking and laughing. She smiles to herself then she hears a new sound. Footsteps. At first she is startled, then she hears a child's laugh.
She turns her head to the new sound and sees a child running towards her.
A shadow is behind the little boy of about 3 or 4. She doesn't know who it could be & she cannot see the face, only a large shadow.
The child suddenly cries out."Mama, Mama, I found You."
All at once she suddenly wants to cry, The little boy, now in her lap, pats her face, and says' "Oh Mama don't cry, We found you."
He gives her a vigorous hug and wet kisses.
She only hears a far off sounding male voice say, "Come on son, let's hurry. Mama will come with us, okay?" and tho' she cannot see his face still, the shadowy figure turns to her and says " You won't be too long?"
She replies, "No I am coming."

Then she wakes up. That was when I was about 13, about that time I was told I had scoliosis. and double curve of the spine in my case.
My sister Andra only had a C-Curve and had to wear a brace.
They had discovered mine to late for that. I went to specialists, chiropractors, massage therapists. I was told the only thing I could look forward to was either a drastic surgery or live with it as best I could.
You wouldn't know I have scoliosis by just looking at me, the double curve compensates for it self and with massage therapy is under a certain amount of control. But one bone specialist told me in brutal terms what I could expect if I were EVER to allow myself to gain weight suddenly, such as if I were to become pregnant. The sudden weight gain at the beginning of the fourth or fifth month would cause either my spine to go down on itself or as has happened a few time cause the rib cage and breast bone to push outwards from my chest and crush my lungs and heart. Or I would never
be able to ever carry to term, or miscarry. I am also twisted in the pelvic bones and have problems with that as well.
So I decided I probably couldn't have babies after all. Or die trying.
That made me very sad; it still does.
I just didn't want to risk my babies lives after I found that out.
I was crushed.
But I do have my nieces and nephews, I love them like my own.
Something in them knows I love them beyond what I would feel if I
were Just their Aunt.
I am also a Mama to them as well.

This is a very saddening story, Audra. I'm glad the scoliosis does not interfere with your day-to-day life.

I've got scoliosis myself, though it's a fairly mild case. Our own inability to have children stems from other reasons.

I am sorry about you two not being able to have children, I can sympathize.

Did you have to have any treatments for the scoliosis or exercises?
I do.

No. My case was pretty mild, and I never went to the doctor after I became an adolescent. It wasn't until I was a senior in college and went to get a physical that the doctor noticed. Before that people had sometimes accused me of standing funny and letting one shoulder sag. It turns out I was just made that way! I look just a little lopsided. People notice it most in photos. So when I'm photographed I try to remember to raise my left shoulder to make it match. It might be just as well it was not diagnosed earlier. Then I might have been put in a brace and gone to a lot of money and trouble trying to fix something that wasn't too badly broken. After I found out about it I read "Deenie." Which just confirmed that Judy Blume was not the author for me.

What sort of treatments do you have? Except for what I've read in "Deenie" I don't know that much about how doctors treat it.

My sister had to have the brace for three years.
I had different treatments and the one the doctors tried to push the most was the surgery
where they attached a rod to my spine and that was the one thing I didn't want.
My mom already knew that was a bad idea because my grandfather had something similar
when his arm was crushed in an automobile accident they put in a rod, it crystalized, snapped and his arm was useless. Mom didn't want that to happen to my spine, so no surgery.
I have exercises, massage therapy and go to the chiropractor who monitors me since I was 19.
I have to keep flexible or I get tremendous pain. so far so good