Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

Hey guys. I was looking up some exercises that are ideal for Scoliosis and came across some very useful ones.  Stretch Up and Reach Down The stretch up and reach down exercise is recommended for those with scoliosis by SportsInjuryClinic.net. Stand with your back against a wall, both arms dangling freely at your side. Standing with your back against the wall to perform this exercise helps you avoid bending forward or backward. If the left side of your back is your tight side, lift up your left arm so that it's pointing straight toward the ceiling. Reach up toward the ceiling with your left hand. At the same time, reach toward the floor with your right hand. You should feel a subtle shift in your spinal alignment with this stretch. Hold your stretch for five seconds, then relax. Repeat your stretch up and reach down exercise a total of 10 times, and perform your stretch two to three times per day. If you're not sure which side of your back is tighter or which arm you should ...

Scoliosis Nutty were invited to review The Bond Hotel in Blackpool as part of the new service we are providing to people with a disability, worldwide. This is our first review and we hope we can do many more in the near future. In conjunction with the Disability Directory we will be adding disability hotels for our members to view. Our lovely Laura Campbell is our resident journalist so she was the most appropriate member of our team to send for a free holiday and report back on her stay with The Bond Hotel. Her review is below, we look forward to your comments. Walking into the reception of The Bond Hotel on that rainy Friday, I have to admit that I didn't know quite what to expect, but I knew I was interested in spending time in a hotel that provides accessible holidays especially for people who have disabilities and special needs. I've had my fair share of spinal surgeries and have suffered through all sorts of associated pain and problems, but thankfully I've only e...

Some of you may or may not have noticed my lack of contribution to my own network since the 11th April, I felt I wanted to explain to those who were not aware of what was happening with my life at the moment, especially as I have constantly been heavily involved with the support of Scoliosis patients since 2004! Sadly and heart breakingly I lost my best friend and husband on the 11th April, since then I have been "existing" and trying to find a way to get through the enormous pain in my heart and the feelings of lonliness that have been with me ever since, Chris (my husband) was a great Scoliosis support for me and I miss him to lean on, he did a LOT for me as he understood the problems I faced with daily living, and for someone who didn't have Scoliosis I think that was amazing of him to show such understanding of my condition. Had it not been for Chris I would not have created all the groups, websites and blogs that I run - he was the one who pushed me into creating m...

Well I am having a bad day but on a professional level so I decided to take some time out to breathe and calm down and writing helps me do this :) I have been on Lyrica now since the 12th July, 2010 and we have had some interesting moments! I am definitely a different person, not quite on the ball as I used to be, I am delayed in my reactions to everything, I am always tired and lethargic and I forget what I am doing ALL the time, I walk into a room and say "what am I doing in here?" a few minutes later I will go "oh yeah, I remember now", not me at all and not sure I like that, what is this drug doing to my brain exactly? My periods are all over the place, I was late by 2 weeks last time and only bled for 2 days - this is most unusual for my cycle as for years, since the age of 14 I have been regular and lasted fror 5 days so I guess Lyrica is playing a part in that also. I think I read somewhere that Lyrica makes you infertile but if you consider we are trying t...

I like to think that as a 20-something, I am endowed with a charmingly cynical sort of outlook on the world that comes through at the most inappropriate intervals. My family could easily attest to this as I am always spouting some sarcastic phrase here, or perhaps a crudely spoken insult there. I don't really mean it, it's just my way of dealing, but I think that over the years this 'way of dealing' has somehow forged its way into my brain and become part of who I actually am, which unfortunately can mean me saying things that might be considered in poor taste here and there. I just wanted to explain that before I told you guys about my physio appointment at the advanced spinal care centre down in Calgary a couple of weeks ago. My family doctor hooked me up with them after a family friend had mentioned my issues to her Doc at the chronic pain clinic (which, by the way, I have still not heard back from.) That doc mentioned it to the friend who told my mom who told my ...

Well, I have been up front and sharing since I joined the Scoliosis community over 5 years ago so I decided I would not stop now, I am sure I will not say something here that has not crossed the mind of many chronic pain sufferer with Scoliosis! But I have never been one to mix my words so I will not start now :) I think this week has to be in my "Top 10 Pain Weeks with Scoliosis" and finally I gave in, went to see the Dr and got myself some drugs! While we are at it, let's throw some facts in here - where does the word drug come from? Well it turns out that the word comes from the Dutch word droog, which means dry because most drugs (medicines) came from dried plants - so there you have it, cool fact for the day hahaha! I have always had a problem with the donor site as many of you well know (donor site = where they take bone form the hip to place around the spine) but these past few months it seems to have changed and would swell constantly rendering me unable to...

It started so well, we casually gathered our belongings as we were heading down to the coast so my husband could play poker with his friends, stay at our townhouse and then get up the next day and finish off the last few bits before our guests arrive on Sunday for 3 months, from Canda. We spent a few hours at our friend's house, Chris played poker while I chatted to my girlfriend, Karen. I was comfortable while at their house, we were sat on a swing which has good support for the back and not too soft. This morning we went out for breakfast and I was fine, although feeling the effects of the bottle and a half of wine we drank each, hehehe. We then had to go to the shop and buy some curtain ends, nothing too exciting or over strenuous! Back at the house we put curtains up, checked the internet was on as planned and I cleaned the windows and did some light pruning in the garden, the plumbago and gazanias are amazingly large now so I cut them back and cleaned up after myself, s...

I am now ready to talk about my visit with Mr Evan Davies on Friday 9th April, 2010. I have been very quiet which is unusual for me but I did my normal thing - keep busy and ignore what was said until there is a point where I have to think about it. I am usually such a gob shite but I switched off, I avoided anything social media and just turned off my PC, I know I should have updated my wonderful Scoliosis family but I was torn inside and really did not want to talk. I met on time with Mr Davies and first impressions were wonderful, I was told he was a good guy and out of all the Drs I have met in my time I warmed to him very well, I thought he had great bedside manner and I also appreciated his bluntness. He did more x-rays and he was very impressed that I had all my medical notes and x-rays since the original surgery - well considering I have been banging on about getting medical history and how important it can be I could hardly arrive without mine could I!? hehehehe He read th...

It all started off so well! Monday morning, get up, start the week with a great breakfast, cup of coffee, let the chickens out into their coop, grab the diary and work out the whens, wheres and whys of what needs to be done. So off I went into town as I had to post some Mobi orders out to Slovakia, so I parked outside the post office in my trusty diasbled spot, walked to the shop to buy my brown wrapping paper and bubble wrap, went to the bank and paid some bills - everything going OK so far, I have not done anything particularly strenuous, the bags I was carrying were not heavy and I was wearing flat shoes (as always!). I spent a good 20 minutes wrapping the items I needed to post and then a further 30 minutes in the queue waiting to send them! I then went from there and did some supermarket shopping, again nothing strenuous or stressful, I didn´t rush around the supermarket or lift anything over heavy, however, I was in and out of the car yesterday so I don´t think this helped, ...

Yesterday was a bad pain day. Admittedly, I could very easily be a drug addict, I take morphine for breakthrough pain which, these days, is happening more and more. I've never abused my drug privileges mostly because of the terrifying fear that one misstep with any narcotic will suddenly cause my brain to warp into a large fungal covered sponge with droopy green jell-O-like soup in which for it to stew. That fear, along with the whole 'losing-control-of-my-life' fear, have combined to make me very cautious with my medication, even on days when I wake up and just know that it's going to be a bad pain day. I can always tell, something doesn't feel right. That normal humpitude sensation on my right side somehow feels more pronounced, like a small armadillo has attached itself to my back and then died. Meanwhile that delicate area of my entire spine just aches, plain old aches, aches like an old leather shoe. I mean, metaphorically if this shoe had an entire nervous sy...

PubMed released a paper on the natural history and long term treatment effects for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. Author: Asher MA , Burton DC. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA. Abstract: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is a lifetime, probably systemic condition of unknown cause, resulting in a spinal curve or curves of ten degrees or more in about 2.5% of most populations. However, in only about 0.25% does the curve progress to the point that treatment is warranted. Untreated, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis does not increase mortality rate, even though on rare occasions it can progress to the >100 degrees range and cause premature death. The rate of shortness of breath is not increased, although patients with 50 degrees curves at maturity or 80 degrees curves during adulthood are at increased risk of developing shortness of breath. Compared to non-scoliotic controls, most patients with untreated adolescent idiopathic s...

OK, so I am seeing a lot of blog posts coming out saying things like "have Scoliosis, come visit our Chiropractor", since when did the Chiros become professionals in twisted spines? For starters they are not medical doctors so I advise that you see a proper Scoliosis specialist before you see a Chiropractor! When I had my surgery in 1989 with a Harrington rod from T4 to L1 I was told in under no circumstances should I see a Chiro, Dr Jackson told me this from Southampton General Hospital, over the last 5 years that I have been running groups and chatting on various other groups, the general consensus across the board is do not see a Chiropractor, some groups do not even allow you to talk about them! I do have a slightly different view to most I have to say, I do allow people to talk about their treatments because I am all for sharing and if a patient had good results then share them, we are all individuals at the end of the day and we react to different treatments, however, t...

I've been thinking about how to introduce myself to you all a lot over the past few days. I suppose I'm overthinking things. I don't have to tell you all my entire life story in one post, and my current pain level doesn't allow me to type that long, anyway. Let me start off with this, then. I had spinal fusion surgery from T10 to L3 in July 1996. I only got health insurance a year ago, so I just decided last summer to get a doctor and have a checkup and a new set of x-rays. (It had been 10 years.) Long story short, I'm having another surgery next month. It's been twelve years since my first surgery, so my memories are a little fuzzy now. I was under the impression that the first surgery would cure my scoliosis, end my pain, and not limit my activities at all. I only realized the other day when reading Simone's story that this has happened to others. I'm not quite sure if my first surgeon actually told me this, or if I just assumed it and no one ever told...

I am back from my holidays, we went to Doñana National Park camping with my husband's brother and his wife in our lovely Quechua tent. Before we left we bought 2 camp beds, we usually sleep on a double blow up mattress but our family needed something to sleep on and I am not all that happy with sleeping on the floor, I struggle to get up in the morning. You should have seen what we managed to ram into an Audi A6 for 4 people to go camping together - hilarious, I swear that the boot gets larger when I show it "stuff" that I need to get into it! HEHEHE. The photo does not do it justice to be honest, not everything was in the car at this point, we still had a table out because we were cooking breakfast on it, so the last things to go in were the cool boxes, food, camping grill, backpack with all knives/forks etc in it, not forgetting 4 rather fatter adults to when we arrived! LOL I had an appointment today to see a new spinal surgeon in Marbella called Dr Ayllon. My 2 year ...

What a week I have had, slowly but surely my pain has started to come back and I am slipping into old ways where I am not getting enough sleep, waking in pain and not sure where to sit, stand or lay. I have been finding that my spare bed which is a harder mattress than my memory foam is helping, I get into that bed, propped up against the wall with a big long pillow inbetween my legs, I manage to get a couple of hours like that. Although my memory foam mattress is sitting on an adjustable bed and I can raise myself I just cannot lay on it after a few hours, I think a disc or something pops out of place while I am sleeping so a harder surface is better for me when this pain is happening. This does not mean to say that my memory foam is not helping at all, if I have a neck pain as well as the lumbar the memory foam and recess help correct that during my sleep. While I was having Bowen treatment for Scoliosis the memory foam was doing the great job that it has always done in the past, ...

Well, I had my last session last Tuesday as my therapist now wants me to take a break and see how I get on for a couple weeks before I go back, she wants to see if my body will stay in the position that I have been keeping for the past 5 weeks. My back muscles have also got stronger on the right hand side of my spine and I am now sleeping a full 8 hours a night again - I cannot tell you how that makes me feel, after only getting 3 hours for many, many weeks I am just elated. I have had a few twinges following the treatment but nothing major and in fact the other day when I was wondering around I didn't even feel like I had ever had back surgery!!!!!!!! I am very stiff in the mornings though but I have some exercises that my husband and I have been doing (he went for 2 sessions for his RSI) and I am still doing Yoga once a week, I believe this has been helping those back muscles to get stronger and at least now I am strengthening the right ones. I did some gardening yesterday and th...