The great Michael Jordan said that the most difficult thing to do in all of sports is hit a baseball. That’s probably true but another very difficult thing to do is play any sport while dealing with complications; including medical conditions, illness or injury. The main symptom with these complications is pain. That makes playing basketball that much harder for Austin Keisler, a sophomore with scoliosis.

Austin’s condition may have been less severe if it was identified and isolated by doctors early in his life.

“In seventh grade I finally found out that I had scoliosis,” Keisler said.

Scoliosis is a rare affliction. The main symptom is a noticeable curvature of the spine. Only 7 million people in America have it.

“It basically curves your spine. It can get very painful, especially when I play basketball,” Keisler said.

Like all genetic diseases, there is no cure for scoliosis. However there are ways to improve symptoms.

“There is no surgery but you can get physical therapy just to make it feel better,” Keisler said.

Over time, depending on how it is handled, scoliosis can get worse, or it can improve to the point where the pain is ignorable.

“Its definitely still there but it is improving. Very slowly,” Keisler said.

It’s hard to find another rare human like Austin.

“I’ve never met anybody else that has it, except for me,” Keisler said.