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Lily sat patiently waiting to be called into the room. She wasn't sure what was planned for the day but she did know the doctor told her to be prepared for a long visit. It was 10:00 am and Lily had taken the entire day off for this. If this doesn't take more than half an hour, she thought to herself, the whole day would be wasted.
"Lily Allens?" A nurse called and Lily got up and strolled to the door. She followed the nurse down the winding hall to a huge room filled with medical equipment she hadn’t seen before inside and three other nurses preparing a bunch of things.
"Uhm. Are you sure this is the room for me?" Lily asked.
"Yes. I'm sure" the nurse replied and motioned for lily to sit in the dentist’s chair in the corner of the room. A young doctor came in and sat on the wheeled stool next to her.

"Hi Lily. I'm Dr. Hortz. So you were recently diagnosed with severe late onset scoliosis huh? Do you know what that means?"

"It means my spine started to curve the wrong way yea?"

"Mhm. Usually this develops when people are younger. Around ten years old. But yours seems to have started less than a year ago and you're 22. It's a rare case but nothing that can't be helped with some aggressive treatment. You're ready I suppose or do I need to fill you in on what we are going to do today?"

"I'm not entirely sure but I was told it would be a long appointment. Honestly I'm fine with whatever will stop the pain" Lily sighed. Aggressive treatment didn't sound all that fun but how bad could it be? She worked from home and lived alone. She had looked up scoliosis online and
saw girls wearing some back braces but those didn't look that bad. Just a bit clunky.

"Wonderful! I'm glad you're onboard Lily. A willing patient who follows directions always ends up getting the best treatment I promise. So first I'm going to lay you back in this chair and we're going to install some braces to keep your teeth safe alright?"

Before Lily could say anything she was leaned back with her mouth stretched wide open with a plastic tool. The doctor started discussing how the bands that her normal dentist had put in the week before had helped to stretch her teeth a vit for these braces as he pulled them out of her mouth. She let her mind go blank and just let Dr. Hortz get to work. There was some pulling and discomfort and a lot of pushing in her mouth but nothing painful. She let her eyes close and just listened to the sound of metal gently clinking together in her mouth. Finally with a bit more pulling it seemed like Dr. Hortz had finished up.

"Alright Lily you didn’t fall asleep did you?" He laughed, "I just need to put on these bands and you'll be all set."

Suddenly Lily felt her entire mouth pull together and her jaw nearly clench as she felt rubber enter her mouth. She whimpered a bit but not enough for Dr. Hortz to hear.
"Finished! How does it feel? You want to see what I've done?" Dr. Hortz gave Lily a mirror and she could hardly believe what she saw. She was speechless. He lips were spread apart by bands and metal brackets and Dr. Holtz began to describe what was in her mouth,

"So in order to make sure your teeth are kept nice and straight I had to put a full set of braces on both your top and bottom teeth. On your upper jaw I had to put in a palatal expander that will be turned once every month when you come in. I placed three bands on each side of your mouth to keep your jaw from sliding all over the place as well. You need to change these yourself once a day. I'll give you a big pack of them so don’t worry if they break and you have to change them more than once a day. Other than that we are ready to move on to the next part of the procedure. Are you ready?"

Lily's mouth was on fire. Trying to open her mouth to speak felt like a huge task so she just let out a soft noise of agreement. Dr. Hortz seemed too enthusiastic about this and it was sensing her head into a whirlwind. She hadn't known braces would be involved. She already signed the papers agreeing to the best course of treatment but she felt like running out of the office as soon as she could. Hopefully that was the longest part of the day.

As she followed Dr. Holtz to the other side of the room he asked her to remove all of her clothes and underwear. She looked at him confused but decided just to do it. The sooner she got out of here the better. He slipped a soft cotton material over her head and torso.

"This is called a stockinette. It will protect your skin for this part"

Lily reached up to uncover her head but Dr. Holtz stopped her.

"It protects your hair, too." A nurse came over and put Lily's hair up into a high bun. She brought Lily over to a stool and took from a small drawer a huge diaper.

“I don’t need that!” Lily managed to mutter through her teeth.

“It’s just a precaution don’t worry Lily,” the nurse said as she helped Lily slip it on. It spread Lily’s legs apart and made her feel humiliated. The nurse motioned for Lily to come and stand in the center of a metal frame towards the center of the room. Lily started to walk over but felt herself waddling like a baby with each step. She kept thinking about how this treatment was necessary but it barely helped. Finally once she got to the frame a soft collar was lowered down from the top of the frame and put around Lily’s neck and pulled taut until Lily was nearly standing on her tiptoes. Her hands were stretched out to grab the poles of the frame. Two other nurses approached and began wrapping Lily in a soft padding. Dr. Holtz shortly joined in explaining the the padding helped when the cast was applied.

“Cast?” Lily said tentatively.
“Yes, you’ll be wearing it for roughly 6 months to begin with. Of course we’ll change it now and again. Don’t worry,” by the time Dr. Holtz stopped talking Lily had been heavily wrapped in the padding all the way up her body from her hips all the way up the back of her neck and around her forehead. Lily already felt like she was suffocating before a nurse put the first piece of wet fiberglass bandage around her waist. Lily felt hopeless. She shut her eyes and just let the nurses and Dr. Holtz do their job.
Almost an hour later Dr. Holtz claimed the job was nearly done and brought a full length mirror in front of Lily. As she looked at the mirror she saw a huge white mass covering her figure. It went from slightly below her hip to the top of her head with a cut out at her stomach and a small one exposed a tiny bit of her face. A tiny bun stuck out from the top of the white and the huge diaper was tucked underneath the cast. She tried to speak but the cast was so tight at her jaw and in conjunction with the braces she could only let out a tiny whimper. Dr. Holtz looked over at her and began to speak,
“I know it may seem like a lot but I promise once you get used to it, it’ll become easier,” he smiled at her as he helped her out of the frame and onto a chair, “There’s only two more things before I can let you go, okay?
“Mm,” Lily managed to say. Dr. Holtz got up and walked over to the dentist area and grabbed a few thing before coming back to Lily.
“This has to be worn 24/7 okay?” He produced a set of two facebows. One he attached to her top teeth and the other to her bottom teeth. A small pair of pliers bent the hooks on both sets so that they could not be removed. Then the outer hooks were attached to a cap that went around the head part of her cast.
“I suppose if you’re wearing it 24/7 I could just cast it on. What do you think, Lily?” Dr. Holtz said. Lily made a small grunt to show she didn’t want that at all. She at least wanted to take it off when she went to buy groceries. But Dr. Holtz didn’t take it that way. He grabbed some extra bandages and encased the entirety of the soft cap in plaster until only the plastic adjusters and headgear stuck out. Lily noticed she couldn’t close her lips at all. The day just kept getting worse and worse for her. “Okay Lily. We’re done. I’ll help you put your pants on and then give you the bag with some extra diapers and care instructions. Oh. Right. For the next few days it may be hard for you to go to the bathroom normally so I suggest you use the diapers just incase.”
As Dr. Holtz helped her put the pants on Lily’s mind was swirling. How would she eat? How would she deal with people staring as she walked home or to the store? How would she deal with wearing diapers.
“Lily you are all set. Just make an appointment for your first check up in two weeks so we can see how you’re dealing with your new situation! Have a good day!” Dr. Holtz turned around and Lily started her awkward waddling walk towards reception.