Part 6 - Scoliosis and A Huge Decision

Henry working out

It is very difficult for children who are `different`. We all know, we’ve all been children. If we weren’t different, then we knew someone who was. You just had to look slightly different; too tall, too short, too big, too small, too common, too posh! But sitting in a wheelchair is a big difference in a large, boisterous, mainstream school. Henry had grown taller and was starting to look frail. He was fifteen years old when he asked me if he could join the gym. He had been reading a book by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was Henry’s latest obsession, body building. All Henry’s conversations would start with `Arnold said` until I felt that if Arnold didn’t say it, then it wasn’t worth saying!

I was not sure how Henry could access a gym, so I took him to the doctor and he wrote him a gym prescription. This meant that a Personal Trainer designed a training itinerary for Henry under the guidance of the Occupational Therapist, and helped him with the exercises at each session. The Occupational Therapist was adamant that it would be bad for Henry to lift heavy weights, so all the exercises were easy and light. Henry entered the gym at the age of sixteen and that was the beginning of Henry’s love-affair with weight training, with the power racks, iron plates, free weights, metal bars, dumb bells, kettle bells, rowing machine, smith machine, bar bells, medicine balls. The Squatting, bench press, push ups, pull ups, dips, curls…..

Check out the biceps!

Henry has worked out in the gym almost every day, ever since. He has long since ripped up the Occupational Therapists `light` training itinerary. He has long since moved from a fitness suite with light weights and fixed machines to a spit and sawdust gym where, for a long time, he was one of the biggest guys in the gym. His obsession with the gym has, in part, been Henry’s saviour. It has given him a constant focus and a goal in his life. It has given him a reason to get up each morning and be a part of something. To get up, train and reap the rewards from the hard work. It has given him an outlet for his anger and frustration and allowed him an element of control over his life. It has made him someone, given him an association to something, an identity, something to talk about, to be proud of. He has organised his life around the gym. His research, knowledge and understanding of the benefits of the gym, weight training, healthy eating and building muscle is immense. It is a love affair that has continued for fifteen years and will continue for as long as he can possibly lift that metal weight. It is a testament to Henry’s will power and determination that he continues to work out every day, day in, day out. The importance of the gym in Henry’s life and what it means to him is plain to see. When I watch him reach for that cold, silver, metal bar, I know that for him it is everything he knows, everything he loves, everything he trusts and everything he can rely on; like dancing with a beautiful woman, meeting a mate down the pub, running through the park, walking in the rain, climbing a mountain, watching a good film, shaking hands with an old friend. For Henry it is like coming home.

Pumping iron

During this time, I noticed that Henry’s spine was starting to curve. We spent a year meeting a team of specialists, Orthopaedic Surgeons, Anaesthetists, etc. His lung function was good enough to undergo spinal surgery but at the end of that year Henry decided not to have spinal rods fitted and the Consultant agreed that this was the right option at that time. I cannot say if we made the right decision. That is the choice that we made and that is the choice we must live with it. There is no going back now.