Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

As some of you know I was back for another session of Bowen yesterday, my first for 6 months, the last time I saw my therapist was September last year. I am pleased about this as this means I have had a fairly pain free life for the past 6 months and trust me I have not been able to say that for years! It was a nightmare for me to actually get there, because we live in the country now, journeys to the coast can be a little lengthy, my therapist has also moved so she is now 45 minutes away and the car jounrney is a little something to be desired! I was bent sideways all day yesterday and sucking in my breath a lot because there is a fine line between where I can stand and get comfortable and where the pain barrier is, I am also on my period which really doesn't help, however, since I have been having Bowen treatment the period pain are FAR FAR less than they ever used to be, this time around though my period has come a lot faster and heavier since having the treatment, this is a ne...

Boy what a week it was last week! We started our new business selling Portable Power Solutions , our stock arrived and then the phone started ringing, orders were coming in and Chris and I found ourselves very busy, up and down the coast all day long, delivering this and that, we also went to a great networking meeting and met some good guys running various businesses, it was nice to network with like minded people :) We also bought ourselves a pitch at a Danish do in Fuengirola, however, this turned a bit sour for us as we felt that the audience were not for us so decided to call it a day and cancel the Saturday and Sunday pitch, we were glad about that as it rained on Saturday, and with our products using Solar it would have been no good that we were inside the building, the Solar products could not come into their own. However, all this activity has taken it's toll on my spine and now I am suffering big time, I am bent over and cannot get straight, I have tried but the pain is t...

Scoliosis Journal recently posted about unspecific chronic low back pain - a simple functional classification tested in a case series of patients with spinal deformities Authors: Hans-Rudolf Weiss and Mario Werkmann Published: 17 February 2009 Background Up to now, chronic low back pain without radicular symptoms are not classified and attributed in international literature as being "unspecific". For specific bracing of this group of patients suffering from low back pain we use simple physical tests to predict the brace type the patient might benefit from. Based on these physical tests we have developed a simple functional classification of "unspecific" low back pain in patients with spinal deformities. Methods Between January 2006 and July 2007 we have tested 130 patients (116 females and 14 males) with spinal deformities (average age 45 years, ranging from 14 years to 69) and chronic unspecific low back pain (pain for > 24 months) after the indication for bra...

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...

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 ...

I haven't posted for a while about my Bowen therapy, I am still having that every week and feel I cannot live without it. Unfortunately, my pain is still there and when I wake after being laid down on my memory foam bed for a few hours, I wake, really stiff and can hardly move, I end up in the spare bed packed up with pillows and a roll pillow under my knees, leg spread as far apart as I can get them just to get some relief. I do not understand it because I wake up feeling really awful and I struggle to move about with increased amounts of shooting pains across the lumbar, I have to move really slowly just to get out of bed and then I walk bent double to get to the spare room - this happens every single day and I tell you what - it is starting to wear me down. Not only do I have this pain in my lumbar but I have pain in my shoulders that I cannot seem to shift, I feel it coming and then the pain starts to build, gets really sharp and then fades away again, I am always rolling my sh...

Some of you may be following me in my journey through Bowen Treatment and will know that so far, so good and I have had great results. I actually went to a nightclub on Friday and had a great time, you know I have not been into a nightclub for over 2 years without the aid of my wheelchair, I still feel strange on my feet but I am not falling over as much as I used to and I managed to dance in a pair of wedgies!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot say that this did me any favours though and I have been struggling since...... Before you say it, yes I know this is probably down to the fact that I went clubbing but I love it and always have, it just doesn't like me or my Scoliosis very much and for years I have entertained myself in other ways, but last week I couldn't resist so I joined my clubbing mates and went dancing :) I have been extremely stiff these last few days since the club night out, I am now 2 weeks without Bowen Treatment and my therapist told me to call her when I need her and I...

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...

I am still going to Bowen each week and I do not know how I would have coped if I had not been going, I have to sleep raised in bed and cannot lay flat but I am sleeping better than I was prior to Bowen and that is what I went to her for. It is strange as I can feel my body moving and clicking into various places. TUESDAY 10TH JUNE Hip pain feels like a fizzing, similar to that stuff you can eat that cracks and pops in your mouth Walking was an issue (only 180 metres) and I had to stop and gather myself before I carried on Pain when crossing legs (been told not to do that though!) Pain just above my vagina - twinges WEDNESDAY 11TH JUNE Neck is hurting and can't turn my head I have not experienced any other pains this week (except the ones that were my own fault!) and now my period has started so I am hoping this month will be as pain free as the month before.....here's hoping anyway. My Mother is here at the moment on holiday and she cannot believe how much straighter I am comp...

Scoliosis Support Group As you know I am undergoing Bowen Therapy at the moment and go for my treatment every Tuesday morning. Last week she did different movements on me again and continued to work on my breathing problems with me. I had pain last week near the donor site again and the Sciatica seems to be more aggravated than when I first started. I couldn't move my head from side to side again but this was gone in the morning, this happened last time. She did a few moves on my neck. The next day after therapy I had horrific pain on my hip on the left leg, which I think is radiating pain from the sciatic nerve, I couldn't cope with it (as much as I tried) and ended up rubbing the area with Ibuprofen gel and swallowed some pain killers. Since starting Bowen my sleeping habits have got better but the sciatica seems to have got much worse, my therapist suspects that I had another major shift and the pain I was feeling was a result. My donor scar also swelled a lot last week, it ...

Scoliosis Support Website It has been 2 days since I last wrote and life has got slightly easier since I have had my first Bowen session . Wednesday was a hard day and early morning but by Thursday night I was able to move my head from side to side again and the neck pain has subsided, when I came back on Tuesday I was in agony and couldn't look left or right without moving my whole body. I went to bed at 1.30 on Wednesday morning and woke at 6am, took some Ibuprofen and got into the spare bed and made myself a little pillow camp and settled there until waking at 9am, I cancelled my appointment to see the Orthopaedic Dr in Benalmadena because the car alarm went a bit dodgy and we couldn't get the windows up, on the dash it said all 4 doors were open and the indicators kept flashing so I could hardly drive the car and park in a public car park and leave the windows open! I got back into bed - yes you hear me right, I got back into bed and slept until 11am, I was so amazed as I h...

So, I had my Bowen yesterday as you all know - I kept myself awake all day and then went to bed at 11:00 with my husband - he worked in bed and I just rolled over and shut my eyes, the feeling was nice - until................ 2:35am I woke up and had to get straight out of bed, I was in absolute agony and extremely scared. I couldn't walk very well at all, managed to get to the bathroom where the tears just started coming and I was in a right mess, I was bent over to the right, unable to get myself straight, I couldn't sit down, nor could I lay down - I was really troubled by this, my husband woke up and came to cuddle me and suggested I take a Valium to help me get some more sleep as it was far too early to be up and about, I took his advice. I necked 2 Ibuprofen and a Valium and got back into bed, once the pain killers had started to help that is - I managed to sleep until 5am, Valium usually wipes me out for 12 hours which is why I take it, but this one lasted only 3 hours -...

I had to cancel my appointment for Bowen technique last week due to work commitments, a client called me the day before and said he would be landing at Malaga airport at 9:30 in the morning, so I re-scheduled my day to fit him in which meant cancelling the appointment. At 9:15am we got a call telling us he had missed his flight! My whole day was turned upside down for an event that was not about to happen, pissed off is a good description of my feelings that day. My client finally arrived 2 days later and the meeting went well, the outcome was just as I had hoped for :) I have still not settled down with my sleeping pattern and the last few mornings I have been up and about pre 7am after going to bed at 1am (that I could deal with). However, this morning I woke up in pain as usual, messed around with some pillows under my knees and shoulders, raised the head of my bed, turned on my side in the foetal position, tried laying on my back again and then the other side - couldn't settle...

I am still having the same problems, the mornings are getting worse - it is now 6:15 am and I went to sleep at midnight, the problems and pains are getting worse and I am really scared, I cried my heart out this morning when I got up and then took 2 Ibuprofen. I really need to see a Dr but struggling to find one in Spain, my mother wants me to go back to the UK, not only to see someone but I am sure a bit of selfishness is in there too - she hasn't seen me since December. I searched for a Scoliosis Dr in Spain and called the Mills & Mills Medical Group on Monday morning, they have a nice webiste, they came up top on Google for a few keywords, they offer a FREE appointment, it was all looking pretty good. I got put through to your standard dumb wit on reception who took my details and said she would ask upstairs (whoever they are) to call me back - nothing. I called again Tuesday and reminded her someone was supposed to call me back, she remembered my name, told me she had pass...

Well, still in the same predicament - not sleeping much and terrible pains in the morning, not being able to lay down flat, on my side or front - it is driving me insane, although one good thing has come from it - getting up earlier so I am starting work earlier also. I am getting up now anytime from 6:30, now to some of you that may not sound too bad but we work from home, remember? So, we are usually up around 9am to start work for 10am (typical time for Spanish businesses), so this is now waking me up a good few hours earlier than normal, once I am awake, I cannot stay there because my back pain is just too strong. My husband is loving it because he is now getting his breakfast made for him every day and a cup of tea brought into him while still in bed (bring him round a bit, he is not the happiest of people in the morning!). I am still searching for a good Scoliosis Dr in Spain but have yet to find one. I contacted Mills & Mills this morning and I am still waiting for them to c...

I started my Yoga last night as I said I would be doing, a friend came round and we did it by the pool, we took our time as she has not done any exercise for a long time and it must be a year since I did Yoga also. It felt good to be doing the stretches, especially the ones that work the muscles over my shoulder blades, however, I still have the same problem that I was talking about yesterday, the awful pain when I wake up in the morning, in fact most nights I am woken up because of it. I am OK when I get up but it is laying down that is causing the problem, I cannot lay on my side, back or front without immense discomfort and pain. I am stumped because I have never had a problem sleeping (since I had my memory foam ) but now I am just not getting any sleep, if I bring my legs into a foetus position it is slightly better - could I have strained anything you think, will this pass or should I go and see someone about it. I am starting to get annoyed with this because I am not getting e...

This week has been very strange as far as my scoliosis is concerned. I did a lot of gardening on Sunday, putting up the fence cover, some weeding and pruning. My legs ached the next day and so did my back - I do take my time and do not overdo it, I had intervals where I sit down and rested before I continued. A few days prior to my gardening stint, I was waking every morning in a great deal of discomfort and pain (depending on the angle I held my body) - I just do not know what to put this down to - breathing was also very painful, this was only after waking up, if I laid in bed it didn't go away so I got up and after a while of wandering around doing my normal morning routine the pain would diminish. It is all localised to my lumbar back and is more than likely the discs? Could the pain be coming from mu insides being twisted after being in bed for a few hours and once I have got up everything straightens itself out and then the pain leaves? This has been happening now for a week...

I thought of this last night and I almost got out of bed to write it down (as I usually forget what my mind is thinking from the night before!). These last few days have been really busy and I have had to really focus on the work that I have been doing, I have been swamped and I have so much to do with organising the furniture for the old house, so we can rent it, working on client's websites and fighting to get my new Scoliosis website launched - I am not happy with how my website looks now and it is almost 4 years old - it needs a facelift and I have been working on that for over a year now and I just want to get it loaded to the net and continue to work on it and help others where I can. So, my point was (before I startd rambling about something else!) - due to me being so focused on work and other projects this week I have noticed my back has not hurt as much (or maybe that is because it is better) - I have pushed myself to the limit this week and not noticed that I have had as...

Glucosamine FAQs Glucosamine supplements contain enough? Glucosamine Trial Results Glucosamine effectiveness I used to take Glucosamine, MSM, Chrodoitin a few years ago on the say so of my Dr in Spain - Dr Andreen. Unfortunately I have not seen him for many times as the last time I tried to get on contact with him - it went no where - shame as he was a great help to me, but there you go. He put me on Glucosamine the first time and I he told me to them stop taking them after a period of time - trouble is I am not sure what period that is - something is telling me it is 3 months but I am really not sure - anyone out there know what time you take Glucosamine for and how long you have to stop for? One thing I know for certain, you should not take Glucosamine all day every day. I started glucosamine in an attempt to cure my Scoliosis pain in my lumbar spine then again as I wanted to see how my levels are during these next 3 months - maybe all the trials that I have read and all arguments of...

I have not updated my diary for a while as my symptoms have not changed much, I was still using the wheelchair on Saturday 13th August as walking was a great effort and feelings of pressure built up as if my spine was going to explode, I think that last bought of pain was related to my period as I always suffer in the lumbar when I get my period. Since Sunday 14th August I started to get better but standing up from being sat down I walk bent over for a few seconds before I can force myself to stand up straight and I walk with my legs far apart because I cannot do it any other way. I tried swimming on Sunday also and could only manage 9 lengths which is not very good as before I was doing 20 without stopping, Yoga is out of the question but I am going to try and cycle and see how that feels. I have yet to start my Glucosamine/MSM/Chondrontin formula, perhaps this will help more? I have started questions for my surgeon so we can discuss where to go from here. List of question for surgeon...