Through The Picture Photography

We discussed the difference between visible and invisible disability, because Scott is in the position of having experienced both. For large parts of his life he had braces and casts, going up to about his chin, but during other periods of childhood and adult life he has been able to hide. Scott has congenital scoliosis, which is the less common form, as well as many other structural birth defects. He told me that he was lucky with when he broke in and the doctors he had, who were major players developing improved treatments for his condition. He remembers details from these doctors--the first, Dr. Harrington, who always smiled and wore a bow tie, but had a stroke when Scott was young; then Dr. Moe, who was so excited to see Dr. Harrington's brace that he asked, "Can I keep it?" Scott showed me with his hands the different shapes and points of his spine and the braces, explaining what the surgeries did. He explained that he had two disks in his lower back that move, and they came together at a point--as he demonstrated. We quickly moved from specific to more philosophical, as started to talk about some of the other children he remembers. "What's a disease? I don't know. Are there times when I hurt a lot? Yeah...but for me it's more structural. It's not like kids or adults that have these diseases that can be in pain constantly... or like Freddie," he continued, trailing into a memory of a lost friend. He remembered after an early surgery: "I told my mom on the plane back...the other kids were 'worser' than I was."