the story of Libbey Eicher as told to Sarah Rupp

Libbey walked with confidence through the door of the hospital to get examined, a requirement to volunteer there. She’d always been in good health, positive she had nothing to worry about. But as she sat in the room at the hospital, it all began to change. The doctor found a slight curvature of Libbey’s spine, known as scoliosis.

“At first, my curve was 18 degrees, which is mild, I just had to do some exercises to help build up my strength.” Libbey explains.

But in the next six months, her curve nearly doubled to 34 degrees and she was fitted for a brace. When she got the brace a month later, it wouldn’t fit her right. The frustrated doctors then realized Libbey’s spine was now a severe curve, 49 degrees, which explained why the brace did not fit right.

“The brace was very bulky at first, and made me feel a little self-conscious,” Libbey admits. “But I did eventually get used to wearing it and found clothes that fit good over the brace.”

A few months later, after deep discussions with her parents and her doctor, Libbey and her family decided they would try to correct her spine with spinal fusion surgery. “I honestly wasn’t very nervous until the day of the surgery which was [three months later],” Libbey confesses. “I never knew exactly what was coming.”

In the nine-hour surgery, eleven of Libbey’s vertebrae were fused. “[After the surgery], the pain was so horrible I couldn’t even explain it.” Libbey says.

Doctors then discovered her screws were too tight, so a couple months later she underwent a two-hour surgery in which the doctors repositioned the rods, attempting to give her spine a natural curve. However, her spine still leaned, which progressively got worse so they fused down another vertebra in an eight-hour surgery. Libbey wore a cast from below her arms to her right knee.

“It was so uncomfortable.” Libbey says about the cast. “Six weeks later, the cast was taken off just in time for my junior prom which was so exciting. I was much straighter and my spine seemed to be improving. I was finally getting my appetite back.”

Things were looking up for Libbey until her spine began to tilt again. “I was really bummed out because I’d gone 5 weeks without having to wear my back brace, and then I had to start wearing it again.” Libbey says. “The more my spine tilted, the more pain I had, the less I could sleep, and I started losing my appetite again.”

Come back tomorrow for the second part of Libbey’s incredible story!

Sarah Rupp is a freelance writer who loves God, reading, fashion, and music, as well as writing of course! You can find her over at her blog, Sarah’s Words of Witsdom, or her fashion and beauty blog, Mod Style Lounge. She enjoys connecting with readers and other writers though comments.