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T he ripping sound of Velcro brings back the memories. Hearing it, I’m in eighth grade again, when I would stand in front of my mother each morning at six o’clock, my back toward her as she pulled on the straps of my Boston brace to tighten its grip around my torso. The sun had not yet risen, but the worst part of my day was already complete—the three large curvatures in my spine once again locked into a position suffocating them from every direction, altogether forming the straight vertebral line my body did not find natural. I was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic scoliosis at five years old, with a severity meriting the wearing of a constrictive Boston brace for 23 hours per day, seven days per week. Within months, this phase of my life culminated in brain surgery for a Chiari malformation, a condition in which brain tissue extends into the spinal cord. This operation corrected my spinal curvatures, and wearing the brace …