A Dr Appointment - Eeekkkk

Well, it has been a long time coming for various reasons, one of them being I needed to grab myself by the balls and work towards an appointment to see Dr Evan Davies. I have been nervous as I am sure you can imagine, but the time has come where I need to know if I can have revision surgery and remove this pain or not. I have been so used to guiding and helping people for years that I put myself to one side, not that I am complaining of course, in fact, if I am honest I have been hiding behind others for many years, trying to avoid surgery for myself, now it is my time to take the walk and go see a Dr to find out if he can help me.

I came across Dr Davies from a lady who found our Facebook group for "How To Look Good Twisted", we had a chat on the phone and she explained what her revision surgery involved and what Dr Davies was like. I will not mention her name because I am not 100% sure she would like me to!

After we had our chat I came to realise she was also a previous Dr Jackson patient, like me. This is another reason why I would like to be in front of Dr Davies with him knowing Dr Jackson, it helps that he knows the previous surgeon who did my first correction and I feel very lucky to be seeing him.

The main issue of my appointment is my constant pain from the lumbar spine, I am fused from T4 to L1, along with a compression rod from T6 to T10. I was and am coping with the pain and I am sure if I had to, cope for the rest of my life, but the pain - awwwww, it hurts too much and I am now punished for anything I do, whether that be a walk down the road, a night round a friend's house, a night out on the town, supermarket shopping - you name it, I now pay for it! I do not want to lay down forever, I am no use to anyone like that, trouble with me is - Over Compensation Sydrome.

I push myself to the limit in everything I do, I have this thing going on in my head that says "if she/he can do it then why can´t I?" So I tend to go over board and lift heavy objects that I should not, but I also think "well it is going to hurt no matter what I do so who cares?". I am your classic over compensation syndrome sufferer where my Scoliosis is concerned.

I have had my harrington rods now for 21 years this March. I have had my fair share of problems since 1989, I would say I was problem free for at least 8 years. I started with bad pains, rendering my unable to walk from the age of 18. I have been in wheelchairs on and off and use a walking stick when I need it.

I seem to be always suffering with muscle spasms and other pains which I find hard to describe, throbbing on the hips and sharp shooting pains from the lumbar up the spine. The harrington itself I can feel through the skin and when I have had a particularly stressful day the rod pokes out at the top - doesn´t make me squeamish though, I find it quite "cool".

5 years ago when I was seeing Drs about these pains, there was very little they could do. MRI scans do not show the extent of the damage due to the rods being in the way and making the images go a little weird. However, since speaking with others who have had harrington rods removed it made me wonder - could I have them removed also, could this pain really go?

When you have suffered with pain for year after year you tend to get used to it, but it would be great to be able to enjoy life a little better. The pain still reduces me to tears, part frustration and part "hurting".

I need to now start preparing questions for my visit and I hoping my lovely community of Scoliosis buddies will help me there? :)

I will update as we go along and I will add his report to my website page that is all about me :)

Thanks for listening and here is to a new era of Scoliotics I am hoping, will we be clubbing any time soon? ;)