Bent But Not Broken: One Family's Scoliosis Journey
About this ebook
For the Butters family, the punch that knocked the wind out of them was a diagnosis of severe idiopathic scoliosis for their eleven-year-old daughter Avery. The only viable treatment option was spinal fusion surgery. It was a terrifying prospect to stare down. Frustrated with the lack of information on what the family would actually experience, Avery's mother, Jodi, started a family blog.
It was there that Avery, Jodi, and Andrew would share their thoughts and experiences about the journey in real time. Jodi was determined that if there were other families searching for this information her family would be able to provide it.
When it was all said and done and the blog came to its rightful conclusion, the writer in Andrew felt that since the blog was so successful at spreading the message then surely there were other ways to help spread the word and share lessons that even applied beyond Avery's scoliosis.
About the author
Andrew Butters is a 40-something married father of two living in New Brunswick, Canada and he will tell you that his first published work was Losing Vern as part of the Orange Karen: A Tribute to a Warrior anthology. In reality, it was a 500-word anecdote about the time he lit himself on fire. That story made it into the third installment of the Darwin Awards books.
Fire is not the only foe for Andrew. He has received several severe concussions and a few “minor” ones, the last coming in the summer of 2011. It goes without saying that he is one hundred percent on board with head protection and brain health.
Not all his distinctions are as dubious as appearing in a Darwin Awards book. There was the time he participated in a trick on stage with Penn & Teller. He had a solid minute of screen time on the Super Dave Osborne Show. He scored a game-winning goal at Maple Leaf Gardens and even “sold” music to filmmaker Kevin Smith. He was also given a whole three seconds of non-speaking airtime in a TV commercial, and who could forget when he appeared as a fighting homeless man in a rap video.
He writes, creates, eats snacks, blogs, toils over his next novel, creates videos, and is a huge fan of golf, hockey, science, EQUALITY, and the Oxford comma. Andrew sometimes lets his love of attention override common sense. You can find evidence of this pretty much anywhere you can find Andrew.
