Hello there! My name is Carmen and I am 11 years old! I am also the founder and CEO of Care Basket.
Care Basket’s mission is to fund for, assemble, and deliver “care baskets” for children recovering in hospitals. These care baskets would include: Blankets, toys, and activities for the children to bring them a smile.
I created Care Basket (With the help of my amazing family of course) to bring a little joy to children recovering in hospitals, as I will soon be in one myself. In November of 2020 I got diagnosed with scoliosis. Scoliosis is the curvature of your spine. It can cause you back pain and misaligned shoulders/hips/ribs. There is no absolute curve, but a couple of things can be done to help “fix” scoliosis:
- Doctors may prescribe you a back brace to wear. A back brace is well, a back brace! I don’t know much about how they feel or what they do as I don’t need to wear one, but I do know that they can help stop your spine from curving any more, or they can even straighten you spine a bit! You usually need a brace if your curve is anywhere between 15-45 degrees.
- Surgery. If your curve is over 45 degrees, doctors might tell you that a brace would be useless, and that the only way to fix your scoliosis would be through surgery. There are two types of scoliosis surgery:
- Fusion surgery. Fusion surgery is basically when a surgeon will cut open your back, and pull and screw your spine back into place. (At least that’s the simplest way I can put it.)
- VBT. VBT stands for Vertebral Body Tethering. In VBT surgeons cut open you back, and then put “clips” (that’s the best way I can put it, there’s probably a better way to describe them than “clips”) in your spine, and the clips will correct your spine as you grow.
I have a 65 degree curve in my spine, and sense I’m almost done growing, I need fusion surgery. My surgery is scheduled for 3/23/2021.
After sadly looking at Instagram the day that I found out that I needed surgery I realized that there are others that have scoliosis and need/needed surgery, and that some people use it to help others. I then came across a scoliosis warrior that makes care packages for kids in hospitals recovering from scoliosis surgery. I was immediately inspired and decided that I wanted to do something like that too! Thus became, Care Basket.
To anyone out there struggling from any health disorder just know, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. And to any scoliosis warriors, you are BENT, NOT BROKEN.
I also want to thank some businesses near me that have helped Care Basket collect small donations to get started! Go check out tint, brown’s hardware, dogwood tavern, and liberty bbq! Thanks for all you help!
Thank you for reading this, and please consider donating to Care Basket. Every cent makes a smile!
For more information on scoliosis, take a look at the “resources” section.
Also, I am not a doctor. This is just my knowledge of scoliosis.