Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

Dammit, I promised myself I wouldn't cry. Mom and I drove to Tulsa and flew to St. Louis. Completely uneventful. Up early the next morning, called the shuttle to the hospital so we wouldn't have to worry about parking and grabbed breakfast in the cafeteria. Let me tell you something. Barnes Jewish is the biggest hospital I've ever seen. No joke, the building I was in is 20 stories high and all of the buildings cover SEVEN CITY BLOCKS. This place was GINORMOUS. I got two new x-rays taken. Oh, I forgot to mention, I was in excruciating pain THE ENTIRE TRIP. So I couldn't stand up straight (especially without my shoes) during the x-rays. I didn't bother to tell the radiologists or Dr. STL, I don't really know why. I was amazed to see the x-ray up on the lightboard. My bones are so off center when I am in pain. It was a good thing I stood like that, though. None of my previous x-rays had shown that my L4 vertebra is a good 1-1.5 cm to the left of my L3 ...

I wanted to take some time out to talk about Llweyn on our Scoliosis Support Group, Llweyn is a part of the Scoliosis Association of British Columbia, Canada (Chapter 100 of the Scoliosis Association, Inc.), she is an inspiration to the members of our group, has a lot of support and help to offer. Scoliosis Association British Columbia Is the second Canadian Chapter but the first to receive, after 3 years of working with the Canadian government, Registered Charity status in April, 2008. This means that the Scoliosis Association can now do some fund-raising and issue tax receipts, along with opening a proper charity bank account that does not charge monthly business fees. They do not have a website at the moment but you can contact Llweyn on our support group or email her directly. Scoliosis Association: Llweyn Working alongside Llweyn is Marion Primeau who is associated with the other Canadian Chapter of Ontario, Marion's chapter has also applied to become a Registered Charity. Sco...

Well I had my follow up appointment with Dr Ayllon yesterday (I would have blogged last night but we didn't have internet!). I was scheduled for an x-ray prior to meeting with Dr Ayllon and I have to say I was impressed, especially for the Spanish! Bless the Spanish we always diss them for being late and slow and yesterday in the hospital they blew me away - we arrived at 17:45 for my x-ray and by 17:58 I was out having 2 x-rays done, waiting in reception for my results! In the UK you have to make an appointment which takes weeks, wait around for ages for the x-ray, pay an absolute fortune and it gets very tiresome, then you make another appointment weeks later to see the Dr with your x-rays. I turned up at the USP Hospital and had my x-rays done in 13 minutes, walked to their other office to see Dr Ayllon and was in for my appointment with him on time - bloody marvellous, but hey I guess that is also the beauty of private healthcare, however, my last x-rays in the UK cost me 199 G...

Hey everyone, I have just come back from a short break, we left the morning after my last blog post actually. We drove down to Barrosa Beach in Cadiz and stayed in the Iberostar hotel - Andalucia Playa - it was lovely, we slept for 2 days thereabouts. We were so tired and really needed a break, moving house, working hard, furnishing another house, organising it for rent, fighting daily pain with Scoliosis and a host of other activities, putting it mildly - bushed! I would rather have gone without the car journey but once we had arrived I was in heaven, first time we had gone to a hotel that served buffet style food every night but we soon got used to that and worked out the rules and regulations surrounding how to eat buffet! ;) We had cocktails during the day around the pool, lounged on sunbeds all day long and every now and then we went for a walk on the beach and a play in the sea, Cadiz is on the Atlantic coast so the waves are alot of fun. I had a Thai Zen facial which was an expe...