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Yay, I've got Scoliosis - INTJ Forum

So I found out today that at age 30, I have a very mild form of scoliosis .

Weirdness. I've had plenty of chest x-rays before (as recently as last Summer during my annual physical) and it was never seen/noticed/acknowledged. But for the last 2 weeks I have woken up with excrutiating back pain in the center of my mid-to-upper back.

So bad that I can't lay in any position and I have to stand up to alleviate the pain.

It also hurt when I breathed.

I thought I either had walking pneumonia or lung cancer.

I have a high pain threshold and this **** hurt like a bastard. I don't know much about it, but I've been reading up on it.

My doc makes it sound like it's not a big deal and it shouldn't get worse, but it will be something I obviously have to live with. Does anyone else have scoliosis?

How has it affected your day-to-day life?

Any advice? He prescribed me an anti-inflammatory steroid, a muscle relaxer, and pain reliever and said if this doesn't help or it worsens in the next 2-4 weeks I should see a neurologist.

Wow. Are there treatment options?

"Live with it" doesn't sound like a 21st century solution to me.

I would instinctively recommend you explore the possibility of acupuncture - I have some issues with my spine from a really bad car accident and I have tried numerous things.

The right acupuncturist and yoga might really help you.

Keep us informed on how you are.

My dad says it is no big deal too, only he says it more offensively.

I recommend chin ups

Too weird. I don't have scoliosis, but I do have a certain love-hate relationship with that mid-to-upper part of my back.

It's very easy for me to develop horrible trigger points there, so I can imagine that someone with a no-fooling curve in the area might have worse problems.

I would consider seeing a good massage therapist - not for a spa-type massage but rather to hunt down and kill the knots that I bet are causing a fair bit of your immediate pain. I've also heard good things about yoga.

It teaches specifically how to align your body and balance the use of different muscles, so it's basically tailor made for your situation.

In fact, my teacher when I tried it briefly had a marked case of scoliosis -- you could see that her shoulder blades were distorted, but she still moved with exceptional grace.

If you like yoga or like spending a lot of time with women wearing spandex, you might find that taking up yoga also teaches how to move in a way that minimizes the strain on your back.

Originally Posted by Monte314 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater.

You currently have 0 posts. Wow.

Are there treatment options?

"Live with it" doesn't sound like a 21st century solution to me. I mean live with it as in you can't reverse it without utilizing some titanium rods and pins of course.

Like I said I don't know a heck of a lot about it but it seems like if there is no pain associated with it, then it's no big deal.

If pain, then there are things you can do to alleviate the pain.

Firmer mattress, trip to the chiro, pain meds, muscle relaxers, etc. What is strange to me is that it sort of came out of nowhere and the pain was unbearable almost immediately, as if a switch was turned on.

This makes me wonder if I didn't damage it in a recent ice hockey game.

It's a non-hitting league but there is incidental contact and I recall about 7 pretty big collisions with either players or the boards.

None of them hurt me but I suppose it's likely that they did, and I'm just now feeling the effects. I will probably visit a neurologist soon just to make sure it isn't pinching any nerves.

@ INTJoe I was diagnosed with it as a teenager by a GP ( I'm 55 now) I think he said it was single digit millions have it.

Your research should turn up credible stats.

That doc gave me the 'live with it' line also. I have suffered a couple back injuries in my work history and have seen chiropractors for services including acupuncture. A friend whose normal back had degenerated due to his job found that swimming saved him from spinal fusions which his doctor was suggesting. Good Luck to finding a REPUTABLE doctor for this.

In my time I have found it difficult to get good care for this.

INTJoe, i do. had it for sometime.

Have spurs with mine...too many fallings off motorcycles, fallings while skiing, fallings while...well, whatever. what worked to a large degree for me was Larry Payne's book 'Yoga RX': To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater.

You currently have 0 posts. i also have sciatica (two busted discs, result of above fallings and being a nitwit).

The 'cure' takes about a month or so, every night in the floor for a half hour approximately.

The exercises are a lot like what one gets from the chiropractors, although there are some added.

Got my 'Payne' book 'used-very good' from amazon, maybe 10 bucks.

Have loaned it to an older lady of my acquaintance who's having back problems, but i have done the exercises enough, i've memorized what works.

There's a special section for the back in the book. good luck.

Requires a change in lifestyle.

Originally Posted by firebee To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater.

You currently have 0 posts. In fact, my teacher when I tried it briefly had a marked case of scoliosis -- you could see that her shoulder blades were distorted, but she still moved with exceptional grace.

If you like yoga or like spending a lot of time with women wearing spandex, you might find that taking up yoga also teaches how to move in a way that minimizes the strain on your back. Only yoga I've done before was on my Wii.

Lol. Perhaps I'll take it up though, especially since I'm currently out of work, I certainly have time to do so. What's cool is I got a copy of my x-rays on CD free of charge.

When I got home I looked at it and noticed my shoulder blades of course, are perpendicular to my spine, but because my spine is a bit crooked, my left blade was pointing at maybe a +2 degree angly or so and my right was pointing down at about -2 degrees or whatever. So I went into the bathroom, shut my eyes, stood up straight, breathed in and breathed out and looked in the mirror, and sure enough, my left shoulder sits slightly higher than my right.

I'd never noticed this until seeing my x-ray.

When my shoulders are relaxed, it isn't really pronounced.

@ reb requires a change in lifestyle. Oh, yeah !

RBM and reb, how pronounced is your curvature?

RBM, how bad was it when you were first diagnosed, and how has it progressed since? Mine is very very minimal and is a "C" instead of an "S".

I was told I had a slight case of scoliosis when they did screenings in the 7th grade. Haven't seen any doctors about it since.

I only notice it when standing for long periods (more than 45 minutes without having a chance to sit or rest).

Also, I'm currently using a big blue bin as a desk chair (can't afford a real chair right now) and I've been noticing that it makes my back hurt after a while. From what I can tell, I only have a slight "C" curve.

It also seems that my spine is rotated slightly counter-clockwise.

INTJoe, mine looks like a used pipe cleaner...it goes this way, n that, n back the other.

There is some rotation in the axis, but it comes back the other way further up (or down).

Amazingly, i 'look normal'-the system will try to self correct.

The shape is off laterally a good bit at the ends (but recall those busted discs, too).

There is an s curve dorsally, but the neck is curved 'too much'-motorcycle wreck (with helmet...this is what helmets are good for).

I can't give you a percentage, really.

I used to have good xrays, with a 'model' line drawn in, and a 'line of best fit' also.

There were lots of vectors.... i haven't had any recent xrays;

Just been doing the yoga.

Haven't been to a chiro in maybe 3 years, since i started the yoga.

I have it. I was spotted when I was 9 years old by a orthopedic nurse who came to my parents' restaurant (my parents just thought I was clumsy).

For the next 10 years I was going to the hospital every year to monitor it.

It was due to the fact that my right hip is 7 mm smaller than my left one. I used to have an S but I did physio, swimming and had to wear this latex vest thing to put everything back in its place (hah...

Harass me now bullies!!).

Because it was in the lumbar section of my spine, the vest did not correct the section closer to my hip. I'm not sure if it was due to my bendiness and just not being focused enough on getting fixed, it ended up in a C shaped with a rotation which developed afterwards. The normal exercises never did much for me.

The best exercise for me is hanging from the pull-up bars and raising your knees as close to your chest as possible and do at least 10 repeats (or to go a step further, once the knees are raised, turn them to the left and then to the right before lowering them again). Because the light physio was not very effective, I had to go into the more intensive (read painful) kind.

This had to do with consciously correcting my posture through assisted exercises.

In this last physio I was told to do any workout that would strengthen my back and stomach muscles.

I had to do lots of sit ups making sure my back would curl on the way up (I did them as if my whole upper body was a stiff plank of wood). I have more recently been recommended Yoga and Pilates too but I have been far too lazy to try it.

I just live with any pain now.

From standing too long, carrying too much weight and during periods (although I'm sure you won't suffer from this).

I have had the waking up with sharp pains thing recently and that was a little scary so I just re-started work outs at the gym with more focus at stomach and back muscles.

I have been told (when I was 9 on my first consultation) that I would suffer if I ever got pregnant....

But you're safe from that too :D Apart from those occasions above, it didn't really affect me a lot and any work out I did just made it better.

I have scoliosis as well INTJoe, mine's really bad, it used to be so bad back in high school I wasn't able to attend school on some days because the pain was to severe to even walk a block.

It's a result of one leg being shorter than the other but, being tall and my body compensating for it I look "normal".

The only thing I've had good success with was the chiropractor, thanks to him I can actually run again. If you were laying down for those chest x-rays the doctors may have not even seen it since scoliosis doesn't really show up unless they take x-rays of you whilst standing.

Something only orthopedic doctors and chiropractors seem to know.

What's weird is I'm very athletic for a 30 year old.

I've played adult baseball and hockey for multiple years recently with no back pain.

But for some reason when I wake up it is excrutiating.

I've always thought one of my legs was a tad shorter than the other.

I noticed this when walking it seemed like I would go down, up, down, up, etc.

It sounds like my version might be closest to yours, lamplighter.

Wow reb, yours sounds pretty bad! Valielen, did you convert your S to a C before or after your body was done growing?

My doc made it sound like you can't correct it after you are an adult.

Also, what kind of pain do you feel?

Mine is like a point pain that feels like it is in one small area, sort of like a knife is stuck in the middle of my back and it doesn't go away until I walk around for a few hours.

Does a firm bed help?

My doc recommended one.

INTJoe, i wake up with a stiff back.

I do three or four yoga stretches before getting out of bed (even after a nap).

Frankly, i have been disgustingly athletic, and acted like my body would work and do whatever i wanted it to...and mostly it has, but 'pain' has also got hold of me a few times and put me down. the best i can say is, 'pain is mind over matter'.

Somehow, you have to reach an accomodation with it.

A lot of that 'exercise' will be mental, but staying in as decent a physical shape as one can helps a lot with scoliosis, i think.

But hockey? you will pay for that, like i did for tae kwan do, karate, cross country skiing down timber covered hills, hauling canoes up riverbanks, jumping motorcycles....these things will catch up to ya.

Bullriders are the ones you can look at and see what physical damage does to the body...they are an intensive study in 'what not to do to yourself'.

@ INTJoe Mine is a 'C' but I can't be more specific- I'll ask my GP is I get the chance just out of my own curiosity. I've had similar experiences to lamplighter and reb.

I'd like to hear how reb got his spurs. I'll explain how I got mine as it may prove instructive.

I am at the tail end of 16 month Chiro.

Care program. The original cause was carrying a very heavy book bag draped over the same single shoulder M-F to and from school.

After about 6 months the pain started. For about 6 weeks I tried over the counter pain killers and various periodic exercises which didn't phase the level of pain.

Laying in bed became so painful, that I had to lay on my living room floor till I got sleepier than the pain was. When I finally went to the Chiro.

The X-rays showed significant spurs pressing on the nerve bundle.

His care started once a week for about 6 months, then 2 a month for 6 months to once a month for another 6 months. Early in his plan my Native American healer ( AMA calls it non-traditional or alternative ) who assisted my Cancer therapy care plan told me about a therapeutic massage therapist.

Her work gave me more relief, more immediately than the Chiro work.

This therapist actually started her practice with a Chiro so she was very adept in her care.

The bottom line for me was if I put constant significant daily weight on my back, it HAS to be evenly distributed. I played high school football, basketball, track (running and discus) and a few years of baseball.

The football sled workouts used to kill me.

RBM, the neck spurs are from a motorcycle accident when i was about 15. the back spurs showed up on an xray when i was maybe 45 or so...can only speculate.

Bone spurs are usually, i think, due to some kind of damage or injury, and may take years to form.

The spine, i've been told, tries to fuse itself to 'stop the damage'.

It could be theorized that the back spurs came about from 'correction' caused by neck problems which were 'untreated' or not optimally treated at the early age. i had a 'network' chiro at one time who would use two 'wedges' under my pelvis....and a little thumper on my atlas bone.

Between these two, he achieved some 'objective correction' over a couple years.

Could see it on the 'marked up' xrays.

Never found another one like him...after a treatment, i would feel like i was 'floating' when i left his office....really relaxed. network chiros are hard to find in my experience.

Originally Posted by RBM To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater.

You currently have 0 posts. I'll explain how I got mine as it may prove instructive.

I am at the tail end of 16 month Chiro.

Care program. The original cause was carrying a very heavy book bag draped over the same single shoulder M-F to and from school.

After about 6 months the pain started. See, now I'm all paranoid and stuff -- I don't experience pain to near that degree, but I do have a longstanding habit of carrying backpacks on one shoulder (one that I'm working on breaking) and I'm actually having trouble right now in the mid-back area mentioned.

And I realized today that the reason why my hips rotate funny when I walk is precisely because of the influence of that blasted backpack. Don't carry your backpacks on only one shoulder, kids.

Originally Posted by INTJoe To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater.

You currently have 0 posts. wow reb, yours sounds pretty bad! Valielen, did you convert your S to a C before or after your body was done growing?

My doc made it sound like you can't correct it after you are an adult.

Also, what kind of pain do you feel?

Mine is like a point pain that feels like it is in one small area, sort of like a knife is stuck in the middle of my back and it doesn't go away until I walk around for a few hours.

Does a firm bed help?

My doc recommended one. I was quite young when I got diagnosed so they tried a lot of things to fix it.

The latex corset thing was the one who managed to turn the S into a C.

It straightened part of it, but not all.

It wasn't pleasant as I lived in Portugal so it was really hot.

It also gave me a dull ache all the time. A firm bed helps.

I slept on hard wood when I was younger because it wasn't uncomfortable for me. I got offered the possibility of doing the operation and get my spine bolted right, but my parents would not allow it since my mom's sister died from that operation many years earlier. I think the reason you did not feel the effects until now is because you are fairly fit.

Your body has obviously adapted to it.

Did the doctor not mention anything regarding getting an insole for your shoes to correct the difference in leg length? The pain is not bad.

I am not as fit as I used to be, so when I put myself into situations where it is too much on my back I get a dull ache at first that gets more and more intense if I don't stop what I'm doing.

The dull ache is similar to muscle pain after an intense weight work out.

As it gets more intense it becomes sharp like you described. I have not done any physio since I turned 18.

About your hockey, I wouldn't worry too much.

I spent two years doing jitsu.

One of those years was very intense with me training 5 days a week at least.

That's 2h of being thrown to the ground over and over again.

You have the right idea with using yoga to aid it.

It will just strengthen you even more and that can't be bad.

Originally Posted by INTJoe To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater.

You currently have 0 posts. Does anyone else have scoliosis?

How has it affected your day-to-day life?

Any advice? He prescribed me an anti-inflammatory steroid, a muscle relaxer, and pain reliever and said if this doesn't help or it worsens in the next 2-4 weeks I should see a neurologist. I'd recommend a chiropractor.

My sister had pretty advanced scoliosis as a teenager and our chiropracter fixed her right up.

They also usually have useful advice about sleep positions and mattress options.

I will probably see a neurologist first so they can tell me if there is anything I need to look out for and how to monitor my condition regarding pinched nerves, and ask them for chiro recommendations, then see the chiro.

The neurologist may want to do an MRI on me, which is fine.

I was told that I had a very mild case years ago, mild enough that nothing needed to be done.

The only reason why the doctor was keeping an eye on it was because my sister had it.

She had a bad S curve, which they tried to correct with a back brace, but it didn't quite help enough.

She eventually got the surgery to put the rods and pins in her back.

This was all about 11 years ago, so I can't really trust the faded memories of a 10 year-old.

I do know that almost as soon as she was diagnosed, my sister went to see an orthopedic surgeon on a regular basis, who kept an eye on her condition until he decided that we didn't want it to get any worse.

I would definitely say to try every other option before going into surgery if necessary.

My sister is fine now, years later, but there are certain things she'll never be able to do because there's always the danger of the rods in her back ripping out if she exerts herself too much.

Things like downhill skiing, waitressing tables, or lifting too much weight.

I personally think that more exercise will reduce the possibilities of injury in her case, but maybe that's just me.

I'm no expert. I have also heard of people getting the rods removed years later, though it's up to the individual whether or not he/she wants to have that surgery twice.

Discussion Title: Yay, I've got Scoliosis
Title Keywords: Yay,  I've  Scoliosis  INTJ  Forum 



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