Luna Ryder feels like she is serving a jail sentence inside her own body.
For most teens getting up in the morning isn’t fun, but for Luna it’s a living nightmare. She says she wakes up in pain and sometimes needs to crawl to the bathroom. Other times the pain is so severe that she is forced to go back to bed.
“I am stuck in this bed, like I am in a jail cell pretty much,” said the 15-year-old North Bay teen.
“Well I don’t really have a life, I wake up screaming in pain wishing that I could fall asleep forever, usually I get up, try to get to the bathroom, sometimes I make it, sometimes I have to go back to bed. By the time I do get to the bathroom and I have to get back to bed it’s almost like mission impossible.”
The North Bay teen is suffering from a debilitating form of Scoliosis that leaves her bed ridden as much as 20 hours a day.
Luna was diagnosed with severe Scoliosis last summer. A horse lover, Luna was taking riding lessons, and one of her instructors noticed she was starting to ride crooked which led an the official diagnosis.
“The real diagnosis came from sick kids last summer and that kind of put us on the path for treatment,” said her Mother Jen Galan Ryder.
But that treatment path has been leading in the wrong direction according to the family.
Pain medication isn’t helping and the idea of having a spinal fusion to fix the problem doesn’t sit well with either Luna or her Mom.
“It’s (Spinal fusion) a cut from the neck to her lower back and be a rod inserted and would lose all mobility from neck to waist with the spinal fusion,” Jenn explained about the procedure Canadian doctors believe will help Luna.
Jenn believes her daughter’s best chance at trying to live a normal life again is seeking treatment at a Scolimart Clinic which is located in Lititz, Pennsylvania.
At the clinic Jenn says the state-of-the-art treatment allows the body to heal and re-train itself.
“There’s no forcing of the muscle, there’s no hardware in the back, it’s all about using static and dynamic auto response training, exercise training,” said Luna’s mother.
“They have a look at neurotransmitters.”
Unfortunately, the cost to get the treatment is not covered in Canada. That’s why they have started a fundraising website to help cover the $18,000 cost to go to the American clinic.
But being on disability, Jenn says she doesn’t have the funds or the assets to get a loan to help pay for the healing journey.
“There’s nothing like this in Canada, there’s nothing like this in the world,” she said.
“It kills me that I can’t go to the bank, withdraw the money and take her to Pennsylvania right now, because every day that we are not there she’s screaming in pain.”
For more information on the fundraiser go to: https://fundrazr.com/scoliosiswarrior
