Scoliosis: Life, Support & Friends

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...

We have blogged about the SpineCor brace a few times and had many discussions about this brace on the Scoliosis Online Support Group. For those of you that have not heard of the SpineCor brace then here is some blurb for you to get your head round, along with a link to a study that was carried out :) Rigid braces have already proven to be ineffective and a lot of surgeons do not prescribe braces nowadays. Rather, they ask patients to just have normal life until surgery is required. What's the point of letting kids go through the experience of wearing a brace for years when they are going to do surgery anyway? Last June Journal of Pediatric Orthopedic published spinecor study analyzed with new criteria set by SRS...all braces were analyzed this way so that direct comparison would be possible. SpineCore Brace Study We have a few members on the group have been fitted with this brace, below are some comments from Verda Tondevold. Connect with Verda on the Scoliosis Online Support Group...

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...

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...

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...

Since writing about my "Creaking Post Syndrome", we moved our bed into the 2nd bedroom, this means I no longer have to climb over the end of the bed to get in and out of bed. This teamed with the fact that we have damp issues with the house was really making me feel old every morning. Now that I am able to get out of bed in the normal manner, the pain has subsided and I feel great in the mornings again - I was getting concerned about this as I have had my Memory Foam Mattress for a few years and always felt really good in the mornings (my bed is my sanctuary) but when we moved house this seemed to change and at least now I know why the pain was coming in the morning - us Scoliotics don't need to be climbing over anything! My period is now on its way however, this means I will be in agony for at least a week and on my pain killers so that my life may continue - it is such a shame that us Scoliotics have to prepare for such occasions and worry about the time of the month, ...

I have been receiving many emails about memory foam and whether it actually works. I will let you into the secrets of my good night's sleep and what I think about memory foam and why it has helped me so much, for starters I no longer sleep with Valium, I simply don't need it. The memory foam that I sleep on was invented by a guy in the UK, who, unfortunately does not have the dollars behind him that his competitors like Tempur do, therefore he has not been as recognised as a brand name like he should have been - it's all down to money, and what a shame that is. I have heard great reports about Tempur mattresses and I have tried one, however, I have to say that their product is not as wonderful as the OroMed Sleep System that I use - you understand that this is MY personal opinion and I am entitled to have one ;) I started my quest for memory foam 4 years ago, I just couldn't sleep and was getting beyond my tether of walking around the house at night in tears because I ...