Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

Scoliosis Journal report on how to improve aesthetics in patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS): a SPoRT brace treatment according to SOSORT management criteria Authors: Fabio Zaina, Stefano Negrini, Claudia Fusco and Salvatore Atanasio Published: 1 September 2009 Background Aesthetics is a main goal of both conservative and surgical treatments in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Previously, we developed and validated a clinical scale - the Aesthetic Index (AI)--in order to measure aesthetic impairment and changes during treatment. Aim: To verify the efficacy of bracing on aesthetics in AIS. Study Design: Prospective Cohort Study. Population: Thirty-four consecutive patients, age 13.2+/-3.7, initial Cobb Angle 32+/-12degrees, ATR 10+/-4degrees Bunnel, 11 males. Methods Patients with AI scores of at least 5/6 were included. Each of them had a brace prescription (18 to 23 hours per day), according to the SPoRT concept. AI was measured again after six months and at th...

The Daily Mail report about a 14 year old girl, Megan Parker, 14, who was diagnosed with hemi-vertebrae and curvature of the spine at just six weeks old and had to have over 40 operations to correct her twisted back!!!! She was forced to permanently wear a specially-made body shell to correct her posture and keep her neck upright. Every time she grew medics were forced to open up her back again to stretch the titanium rods screwed into her to keep her spine straight. But after a lifetime spent in her shell she has finally broken free after racing to recovery - and has even taken up go-karting. Nowadays Meg, who wants to be a singer, can be spotted zooming around her local track - a far cry from the pace suggested by her old nickname. Megan, who lives in Colchester with full-time mum Tina, 39, and specialist car mechanic dad Robert, 43, said being without the cast had totally changed her life. She said: 'There is so much that I want to do now, but I have to take things steady becaus...

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, well, well. I have just read in the mail that Gillian McKeith has Scoliosis and has been suffering from this for some time. "Every day of my life I suffer from a condition called scoliosis, a severe abnormal sideways curvature of the spine. It bends in the wrong directions - 'S' shape in my case - and strikes violent spasms of breathtaking agony throughout the body. My back is the way it is because no one spotted it as a child and sent me for treatment. Doctors have told me it's now too late and too severe for even an operation to help. So while I help millions of people around the world to get well with good food and lifestyle changes, I understand what it feels like to endure serious health challenges." Who would have thought it eh, the lady who tells us what to eat, how, when and why is struggling with Scoliosis, I hope she is using the herbs for her pain and practicing what she is preaching! The paper has suggested that there is nothing they can do for h...

Scoliosis Support Website and Group I had my second Bowen treatment today for my Scolisois and I was looking forward to it. Since starting Bowen my legs have leveled out, they were way off before and I would reckon it to be about 4cm between each leg, we did attempt to measure it but it is not easy to measure your leg lengths so we did each leg a few times and then took an average. The only part I do not like is having to lay on the table on my back, it feels like someone is pulling my spinal cord which makes me very uncomfortable and makes my back arch slightly, however, she has to do this to make sure that my legs really are the same length and she was amazed at how well my body had responded to the treatment, she was not expecting the legs to be level already! My therapist also worked on my breathing today as I have been complaining of that recently and I wake weezing, we have a damp problem which is causing spores and this is not helping my respiratory at all - time to get out the...

Had terrible pains when I woke up yestreday morning, I was unable to straighten myself without terrible pains lower middle back so I stayed in bed all day, took some ibuprofen 400mg and a heat pad on my back and then later when I felt up to it I had a bath, even wiping my bottom proved difficult. I awoke this morning and felt somewhat better but still walking bent over, unable to straighten myself, so long as I walk very gingerly I am OK, any sharp movements cause havoc!