Local girl gets active to fight scoliosis

Sports were never really of any great interest to Bigfork High School senior Lena Olson, until she found out they were her key to freedom.

Olson was diagnosed with scoliosis toward the end of her sixth-grade year. Her doctor gave her a "clam-shell" brace that she had to wear at all times, except when she was doing sports or being active.

So in eighth grade she decided to start playing soccer after being encouraged to do so by her friend McKenzie Reeve, who now plays for Columbia Falls.

"It was liberating," Olson said. "It was the only time I was free and could move around like a normal person."

Olson liked her new found freedom so much that she stopped wearing her brace altogether. At first she hid it from her parents, but they soon found out and asked her if that was truly the choice she wanted to make. It was, and she stayed with her new sport as well, joining the school team her freshman year.

"It was a learning experience," Olson said. "I wasn't the best player on the team by any means. I never would've imagined that I'd be starting. When I was a freshman I would've given anything to be out on the field. I'd get excited just over getting to play for five minutes. It was good though. That's when I really started to love soccer."

Prior to playing soccer Olson was an artistic kid and didn't participate in sports.

"I was never really athletic or into sports," she said. "It just wasn't my thing. Once I tried it I was like 'this is awesome.' Playing as a freshman, you idolize the older girls and think, 'I want to play just like them someday.' Also, having fun with the team helped make me want to play too."

Although Olson was enjoying her full-time freedom from her brace, there were some concerns that she shouldn't have stopped wearing it. However, she recently found out that taking it off was probably a good decision. Her doctor told her that even if she had worn the brace she would likely still have had to have surgery, which she underwent last month, and in fact it may have been worse. She was also informed that all of her physical activity helped make her back muscles stronger.

Last October she went to the doctor to have her back checked for the first time since taking the brace off. There were some signs of curvature and other spine problems, so the doctor told her to return in April so they could monitor the changes. When she went back in, they found that her spine had curved an additional seven degrees, which is a lot for a girl of her age who had finished most of her growing. The biggest concerns were that she was skeletally mature and that her vertebrae were turned in a way that they could fuse to her hip bone if she didn't have corrective surgery soon.

The first available surgical appointment at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Spokane, where she was a patient, was at the end of August, but Olson didn't want to miss the beginning of school. So, she chose the next opening, Sept. 22, which was consequently right in the middle of soccer season. She asked about an October date, but none were available, and she had to have the surgery before she turned 18 in November in order to guarantee that the hospital would take her as a patient. The Shriners Hospital covered all of the fees that Olson's family's insurance didn't. In turn, the Olsons voluntarily made a sizable donation to the hospital.

"I had excellent care there," Olson said. "I was so glad that we got into that hospital. They were very good to me. My family and I were very grateful."

The doctors took out Olson's bottom rib on her left side and used it to fuse her spine together. They put tiny metal cages between three of her vertebrae and three screws into her spine as well all to help her bones stay straight.

"Recovery is going really well," said Olson, who returned to school this week. "The hardest part is taking it easy. You remember all the things you used to be able to do and it's hard because you can't do them."

Those things included ending her last year of high school soccer midway through the season.

"I was devastated at my last game, but I was trying not to show it," Olson said. "I was just trying to be strong and play the best I could."

However, her doctors predict that in six months she will be able to go back to doing most of her daily activities, except contact sports which will have to wait for an additional six months.

"After that I'm good to do everything," Olson said. "I'm really excited. It amazes me too."

Although Olson didn't get to finish the season on the field with her team, she kept in contact with them while in the hospital and attended their remaining games when she was released.

She received a text message about the team's first win of the season, which was against Polson, while she was in the hospital.

"I was so proud of them, but it was bittersweet," Olson said. "I really wanted to be there so bad."

Olson fed off of the support of her team while in the hospital and since beginning recovery.

"It was great to have the team there for me," she said. "They were along for the ride. I had them before the surgery and they were there after. It was cool to see the girls play their last two games. They had improved so much from when I played with them. That was really fun to see. I really just wanted to support them the way they supported me."

In addition to soccer, Olson has also participated on the schools' track team. At this point, she is not sure if she will be able to run this year, because the season starts right at her six-month point. But if she is cleared, Olson said she will be running.

"I really like how it challenged me," she said of getting into the sport of track. "It opened up a whole new part of fitness for me."

Olson said she enjoyed seeing her progression with the sport as she kept improving.

"That sort of personal achievement made me really like track," Olson said. "I love how healthy track makes me feel too."

Olson has really taken a liking to her new found healthy living habits and being active in sports.

"Running is sort of a spiritual thing for me," she said. "Like how yoga is a body and mind thing, running is the same for me. If I'm upset, it clears my head. We were talking on the soccer field about what we think about while we're playing and I said that my mind is blank when I'm out there. It's sort of meditation in motion."

Olson probably uses the example of yoga because it is one of her other passions.

"I really like the physical part – the stretching," she said. "But then I got into the spiritual side. I liked it because it was different."

During her sophomore year, she started doing yoga with Quinci Paine after track practice and next thing she knew she had more than 20 other teammates joining them. Last year she led the team in some yoga during warm-ups at the divisional meet.

"Now it's a whole team thing," Olson said. "I think the Bigfork track team is known as the yoga weirdos now."

But while in recovery Olson has had to give all that up.

"It's been a little tough to go from running three or four miles a day to maybe just walking down the driveway," she said. "It's really frustrating at times, but I just have to keep reminding myself that I will get better."

It won't be long before Olson is back to playing soccer, running, practicing yoga and taking part in the other activities she likes, including cross-country skiing, hiking and biking. In the meantime she is making the most of the experience.

"It's definitely put things into perspective for me," Olson said. "I wouldn't say it made me stronger. I was already strong enough to deal with it. But it's tested me physically and mentally. It's been a test of will and it has made me get my priorities straight again."

Those priorities include sending out college applications, focusing on school work and dedicating more time to her artwork. She is hoping to attend Western Washington University or the University of Montana to major in art education and Spanish. Olson works in many mediums, which she likes to mix, including water colors, pen and ink, and colored pencil.

"Art is something I've always done ever since I was really little," Olson said. "It's self-expression. People find their niche and I think it's my little corner of the world that I've found my place in."

Olson said that all of her recent down time has given her extra time to work on her art, which helps keep her mind off not being able to participate in her active hobbies.

"Having the surgery reminded me how much I love being active and doing sports," Olson said. "I think when I do get back into being active I will love it so much more because it was taken away from me."