Derrick Johnston reports on Caltaf athlete Melissa Hazen:

On February 1, 2010 Melissa Hazen endured 7 hours of major surgery on her spine in an effort to correct a condition known as Scoliosis. She was out of the hospital 4 days later. As a young child Melissa was active in gymnastics and decided to quit at 13. It wasn’t until 5 months after she had quit that doctors had noticed the condition and it was later determined that her gymnastics participation had a profound effect on delaying its onset. Opposed to surgery, her parents searched for alternatives…yoga, swimming and hanging from monkey bars. Turned out that the monkey bars worked quite well. It helped with the pain and also gave the appearance of a straighter spine. Before the surgery her spine was curved at a staggering 62 degrees. The expectation was that surgery would improve it by 50%, but we are happy to note that as of today, she is at 19 degrees. When asked what the effects of the surgery were, her strong character shined with jokingly answering, “well, I’m going to be 5 or 6lbs heavier with all the metal in me” Aside from the metallic weight gain, she will lose some flexibility due to parts of her spine being fused, but her lungs will be thankful with reduced respiratory problems.

The road to recovery will be a lengthy one, but in the short time I’ve come to know Melissa, I know she’s strong enough to bounce back. It’s been a month since the surgery and her first day back to school was a fitting March 1st; new challenge to start a new month. She anticipates being back with CALTAF in the fall and we will welcome her back with open arms. Barring no problems with the instrumentation on her spine, she shouldn’t require further surgeries and she can get on with living life the way teenagers should be.

From your track family in the CALTAF Power/Speed group: We all miss you Melissa and we’re looking forward to your return.

X-ray of Melissa before surgery

X-ray of Melissa after surgery