Teen learns to dance again after surgery
OWING TO CRIPPLING SPINAL CYST, GIRL, 17, HAD GIVEN UP ON HER PASSION
Athrill shot through 17-year-old Kasia Sikora as she slipped her feet into her familiar ballet shoes for the first time in eight months after suffering from excruciating pain that had made her give up her passion.
She thought she would never put on those dancing shoes again, but here she was twirling to a classical symphony.
Last January, the Australian grade 12 student from the Dubai American Academy suddenly experienced pain in her lower back, radiating to her legs.
“I have always been a healthy person, very active, cycling, horse riding, playing sports,” Sikora recalled.
Although she ignored the pain initially, Sikora was compelled to seek medical help as she could barely walk.
“I would have this involuntary shaking of my legs, experience excruciating pain in my lower back and feel I had lost all strength in my legs,” she said.
The family consulted at least four health specialists around town but no one could determine the cause. “One doctor advised my parents to seek psychological counselling as he thought I was fussing about pain which had no origin,” she said.
Eventually the young girl consulted Dr Nicandro Figueiredo, spinal neurosurgeon at Medcare Orthopaedics and Spine Hospital, who detected ■ ■ an aggressive spinal meningeal cyst in her lower back.
“I have operated upon spinal cysts, but Kasia’s congenital cyst was the largest I have ever operated on, measuring 7cm by 5cm. I have earlier operated on cysts no larger than 3cm. The cerebro-spinal fluid was collecting in the cyst, had arrested the proper growth of her bone and required to be disconnected, ligated and drained,” said Dr Figueirado.
The surgery was conducted in mid-August and Sikora recovered rapidly, returning to school in September after the summer break.
“With regular physiotherapy, I was using the walker to drag myself to school when it reopened. The physiotherapy helped me back on my feet by September end,” said Sikora.
For someone who was told she would never be able to dance again, Sikora surprised her dad when she donned her ballet shoes last month and attended her first ballet class after the surgery.