For years, Imke Zengers (26) from Valkenswaard walked with a brace around her waist. The reason: a severely deformed spine. And it still affects her life every day. This month is Scoliosis Awareness Month and according to Imke that is just right. “I wore three T-shirts over each other to hide it.”
About 60,000 Dutch people suffer from scoliosis, the condition in which the spine grows sideways in a curve or even an S-shape. And every year about a thousand more patients are added. Not a small problem, you would think. Still, according to Imke, there is still a lot of misunderstanding.
She herself remembers exactly how the curvature in her spine was discovered. “That was strangely enough by chance. I was 13 and in the second grade of secondary school. Some people from the GGD came by for a physical check. Is your weight in order? Are you growing normally and how well are you, for example? eyes? But your attitude was not looked at.”
Coincidentally, Imke was ill in bed that day. “So a little later I still had to go to the GGD location myself.” There, the position of her back was extensively looked at and that is how the deformity came to light. “A surprise, because I had no complaints at all at that time.”
“It’s a good thing I was sick that day.”
It is precisely this characteristic of scoliosis that causes a lot of misery. Because the moment the curvature also becomes visible ‘from the outside’ and the complaints arise, it is actually too late. “That’s why it’s such a shame that not every child is checked thoroughly. It’s a good thing I was sick that day, because that probably saved me a lot of suffering.”
Not that everything was smooth sailing for Imke after the diagnosis. “I walked with a big brace around my waist for the first few years to prevent further deformity.” That seemed to help at first. The curvature even decreased for a while. But for all good hopes: “It is now worse than ever. My spine is 65 degrees crooked and pressing against a lung. This makes breathing quite difficult at times.”
Not that she let it ruin her daily life. Imke now works as a teacher at an MBO school, sports a lot and enjoys it to the fullest. But it was certainly different in high school. “Little is known about scoliosis, so you are quickly seen as a poser. Why don’t you join the gym? Why don’t you stay longer at that party? And they thought it was strange that I asked the safe at eye level.”
“As an adolescent you are only concerned with how you look.”
And that at not exactly the easiest age. “As an adolescent you are only concerned with how you look. Well, then walk with a brace like that. In the summer I wore three T-shirts over each other to hide that thing.”
She would like to spare future patients that experience. According to Imke, the fact that attention is being drawn to scoliosis this month is urgently needed to create a little more understanding. “People sometimes tell me that they also have some problems with their backs. You should know, I think.” And for anyone who tells her she’s crooked, she also has a beautiful message: a curve is the prettiest smile†