"Hi, Dr. James!" said Tammy.

"Hi Miss Tammy." said Dr. James. "I heard you've been having some back problems."

"Yes, sir." said Tammy. "My back has been aching and sometimes I feel like my balance is a little off. My school nurse said that I should go to the doctor for an X-Ray."

"She was right, Tammy." said Dr. James. "Your symptoms are making me think that you may have scoliosis. Have you done a lot of growing recently?"

"Yes, sir." said Tammy. "I actually grew 6 inches this year!"

"Scoliosis can be caused by rapid growth. This means that your body grew before your skeletal system could catch up, which means your back muscles pulled to opposite sides.

"OK, I think I'm ready." said Tammy.

"Alright, Tammy, stay very still." said Dr. James. "The x-ray will be done in under a minute."

"You can see from your x-ray here that you do have slight scoliosis. Your curvature is very small, which means this shouldn't cause you much trouble in the long run. I think we're going to have you start with daily stretches to strengthen your back muscles and maybe put you in a back brace later on. You're very lucky because severe scoliosis can result in surgery." said Dr. James.

"I really wanted to play soccer this fall though. Am I not allowed to play anymore?" asked Tammy.

"You sure are allowed to play!" said Dr. James. "Since we caught your scoliosis this early, you shouldn't have any problems playing sports."

Tammy and her friend Lexi decided to start going to yoga together every day after school. This would help Tammy strengthen her back muscles while still having fun.