S is for Scoliosis
April 3, 2006 at 4:00 When I was 15, I was diagnosed with scoliosis during a sports physical. Scoliosis is an "S" shaped curvature of the spine that often develops in children as they grow. Other than vaccination appointments when we were babies, my parents belonged to a generation that didn’t take their kids to the doctor unless they were sick—and you had to be really sick. At 15, I hadn't been to a doctor at all in at least five years and have no recollection of ever getting a physical as a kid.
By the time I was sent to an orthopedist at the University of Virginia medical college for evaluation, the curvature of my spine was noticeable to the casual observer and just shy of the range where surgery is often recommended. Surgery that was not without significant risks. Surgery that would have involved inserting steel rods into my back and fusing my vertebrae. Surgery that at that time would have kept me flat on my back in a body cast for at least six months recovering.
If only I had been diagnosed sooner. If only my parents had taken me for yearly physicals or been more aware. If only the rural school I attended had had a nurse and done scoliosis screenings. If only my PE teacher had noticed my hips dipping to one side, my uneven shoulder blades, the way my left ankle and knee pronated in. As an adolescent I was more concerned about the size of my nose and my chest to consider the shape of my spine. Still, it shocks me that my body was dramatically off balance and no one noticed until it was too late for therapy, too late for bracing, too late to do anything but watch and see if it got worse.
The back pain started when I was in college. Sitting to type was a particular torture and caused my initial bouts of back pain. I’d been a competitive runner in high school, and in college I continued to crank out a few miles a day, took PE classes, occasionally went swimming in the college pool and later took aerobics classes. I was reasonably fit and very active, but it didn’t matter.
One day when I was 26, I woke up and couldn’t turn my head. My spine was in a painful “lockdown” and I had extremely limited range of motion. I was 66 miles away from home. My husband was traveling. I managed to get into the car, and I drove (without being able to turn my head!) to a chiropractor’s office in my hometown.
I didn’t know what else to do. I‘d been seeing orthopedists for 11 years and basically they said what was done was done. I should stay fit. I should watch my calcium intake. If it got really bad, I could have surgery to straighten my spine but there was no guarantee surgery would end my back pain.
When I started chiropractic treatments, I had a very limited range of motion, the way my weight was distributed between my two legs was dramatically uneven. My left hand, which is my dominant hand, was inexplicably weaker than my right. The middle fingers on that hand would occasionally go numb. I was in so much pain I could barely carry a magazine across campus, let alone my textbooks.
During that first major episode of back pain, the chiropractor recommended a nutrition regimen that included B vitamins to boost neurological function and reduce inflammation, adjusted my back three days a week, used electrical stimulation to reduce muscle spasms, and applied moist heat. He also gave me exercises to do at home.
I’ve continued chiropractic treatments now for almost 18 years in an attempt to keep my spine flexible and moving, my back as balanced as it can be in its awkward S shape. I think chiropractic has minimized major episodes and kept me functioning but back pain remains a part of my daily life.
I had to give up running, which I really enjoyed, by the time I was 30 and stick with low impact aerobics or activities. While core strengthening exercises are critical for me, I find them very difficult to do because of the condition of my back. I am forever caught in a cycle where the very thing that might help my back (weight training, pilates) is also a trigger for more back pain and spasms that make me unable to do ANY exercise. I walk for 45 minutes several days a week, I do some yoga, but I know I don’t do enough.
Long car rides are a challenge. My chiropractor tells me to avoid sitting for more than an hour at a time. My back tells me the same thing. Very few chairs are comfortable for me. I can’t sit on bleachers, sit at picnic tables, or even sit comfortably in a restaurant or kitchen chair for more than 45 minutes of so. The only chairs I like are my recliners.
If I get chlled, my back locks up. I have more sweaters, scarves, and outerwear than anyone you know. I travel with ibuprofen in my pocket and an instant heat wrap in my suitcase. The worst thing for me is to be standing still in cold or damp weather. If I’m walking, I’m usually OK, but to watch an athletic event, parade, or even stand around a playground while the kids play is uncomfortable at best, painful at worst.
I don’t go swimming anymore because what feels brisk and refreshing to someone else is paralyzing for me. I don’t go camping with my family because I can’t sleep on the ground or risk being out in damp air for hours on end. For the most part, I can’t carry anything for more than an hour or so without discomfort or pain—it doesn’t matter if it’s a backpack, a small purse, or even a camera. This is a literal and figurative pain in the neck when you’re shopping or trying to be a tourist. Every time we plan a weekend or vacation, I'm wondering if my back can take the trip, the sightseeing, the mattress, the weather.
I normally spend at least a $120 a month on back care. Some months the figure is over $200.
I don’t mean to whine. All things considered, I’m pretty lucky. Major episodes of back pain are rare, and with minor adjustments and a few ibuprofen, I can do nearly everything I need to do. But a day doesn’t go by without back pain, however mild, punctuating my hours and limiting my activities in one way or another. I don’t expect it to do anything but get worse as I get older. I live in fear of debilitating arthritis in my spine.
So take care of your back and keep an eye on your children’s. Make sure they get yearly physicals and that the physical includes a scoliosis screening. While things could be much worse for me, they could also be much better. Scoliosis is preventable and treatable--when it’s caught in time.
Copyright 2006 Veronica McCabe Deschambault. All rights reserved.
April 3, 2006
Reader Comments (10)
I too have bouts of pain, but have learned what triggers it and have lessened those activities. This year was the first that I sought treatment from a chiropractor. I knew next to nothing about chiropractors and asked around. I got MANY varying responses. My Dad had been to a few and LOVED one of them, but was skeptical of the rest. My Mom told me (I also read this in a letter that a chiropractor wrote to Dear Abby) that she was told if you need to go to a chiropractor more than a few times, they are a quack (sorry, her words not mine, I'm not judging). The chiropractic place that I went to just didn't feel right to me. I know it sounds crazy, but it felt like a cult. I needed to go 3 times before they adjusted me and on the final time I told them that I didn't think it was right for me and never got adjusted. It seems as if there are two schools of thought among chiropractors: those who recommend a "plan" of treatments and those who treat you just a few times and go from there. It also seems that there are two schools of thought among people: those who think chiropractors are essential to their well-being and those who think they are quacks :) The place I went tried to get me to go 3 times a week for a year and I didn't feel comfortable doing that. The chiropractor that wrote the letter to Dear Abby had said "it is alarming when a chiropractor prescribes long-term treatment for a patient. How can he see into the future?". That scared me.
I am sorry this is so long, but it really interests me and I like to hear about people's experiences with chiropractors. Thank you for sharing all of this.
Sorry to make it even longer, but have you ever read the book "Pain Free for Women" by Pete Egoscue? Good read and helpful. Unfortunately I'm unable to devote the hour that he requires per day to follow his principles. I wish I could.
SORRY AGAIN THAT THIS IS A BOOK!
That initial episode in college required frequent visits for about two months and after that I was adjusted every 3-4 weeks unless something unusual was going on. Now I go to 2-3 times a month to a Belgian chiropractor who attended college in the U.S. and is board certified there. He works with high performance athletes (including Lance Armstrong on the Tour de France) as well as middle-aged bloggers like myself. One of the coolest things he's done for me is to eliminate a problem I had in my left knee. Although I'd never injured it, I had a recurring issue with it getting tender and sore, making it tough for me to even walk for exercise. As he was adjusting my back, he asked me if I was having problems with my left knee. I said, "Yes, I was just getting ready to mention that to you." He manipulated my knee and legs and instantly fixed it--a problem I'd had for YEARS that my doctor and other chiropractor hadn't been able to rectify. It's been perfect for more than six months now.
Chiropractors do come in many "flavors," some are more "granola" than others, some are more like physical therapists, some specialize in sports medicine or rehabilitation of injuries, some are as much into nutrition and raw foods as they are into other kinds of therapy. Some do the whole "one year plan" thing and others plan therapy appointment to appointment, based on how the patient responds. Expect a consultation and an exam that includes measures of range of motion and evaluation of pain, lifestyle, overall health before beginning treatment.
I know independent studies of the effectiveness of chiropractic have had mixed results. Once again, I think a lot depends on the doctor and the patient's commitment to getting well. Back pain comes from many origins (weight, lifestyle, fitness, injury, medical conditions) and there's no one size fits all solution for anyone. Most back problems that aren't the result of injury are the result of years of certain stresses and life style conditions affecting a person over time until the back can't take any more! Those conditions won't rectify in a week or two and won't disappear without lifestyle changes. And no one wants to hear that!
When I have had jobs which required long hours on my feet, my back and knees really took a hit. I felt it most between my shoulder blades and in my low back.
The turning point for me, in a lot of ways, was when I took a temp job with a chiropractor. I had never even been to a chiropractor before. I learned a great deal. During my time there, I became a believer. I saw a man literally crawl across the parking lot on his hands and knees to the clinic, but was able to walk out when he left (I learned he came in about once a year, in a similar state, after he had been sitting out in the cold during hunting season). I also saw some incredible x-rays of an elderly woman whose curvature was so severe, her spine was nearly horizontal in the middle of her back. She was a very grumpy patient, and I can only imagine the constant pain she was in. She said that coming to be treated was the only thing that kept her mobile.
Every chiropractor is different. Although all the doctors in the group of clinics I worked in were competent, I was definitely more comfortable with some than with others. As the chiropractor I worked most closely with always said, *someone* had to graduate last in the class. Always shop around. I do believe that chiropractic works. But I also believe, as I do with most things, that you should do your homework, and follow your instincts. Most chiropractors I know favor an interactive relationship with their patients, and I'd be skeptical of someone who was not open to being questioned respectfully.
Anyway, didn't mean to go on a chiropractor tangent... What I was getting around to is yoga. Yoga has been the thing that keeps the pain away for me. If I don't go for a couple weeks (like now for instance), the space between my shoulder blades burns, and I start to feel a little less stable in my low back. Other types of exercise are beneficial to me, but they don't specifically help my back the way yoga does. I think it's a combination of the core stability and lengthening flexibility that helps me the most. Having strong muscles from weight training was good, but keeping the range of motion and flexibility with yoga seems to be even better.
Whew! This seems to be a good subject, V-Grrrl! I hope they come up with new, less invasive ways to treat scoliosis. It can be debilitating, especially the older we get.
I also have a mild case, made worse by two car accidents I was in. In one of them I broke two vertibrea and three ribs, all around my problem area, when I was seventeen. I know what you mean, when you say you have lived with back pain everyday. It is about the same for me, which is why I think I have such a high tollerance for pain, really. But it really sucks.
I went to Yoga today, and it was a already a bad back day. I should have waited. :( But I am not giving up on the Yoga. The teacher was almost sixty, and boy would I love to be in her kind of shape!
I had a WONDERFUL chiropractor, but he moved far away. I have never been able to find another one with his talent or touch for my poor back. Oh Dr.Broghten, where art thou?!
I'm sorry that you have such problems and I'm glad chiropractic works for you. Have you ever considered acupuncuture?
As far as chiros, I agree with what you guys have said. I have tried a couple who I didn't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from and I just never went back. They are just like any other pracititioner ... bedside manners really count. I understand the thinking that if you have to keep going back, they are quacks, but it is not very realistic ... why should we expect our bodies to stay put so to speak after an adjustment? We slouch on sofas, sit at computers for hours at a time, etc. and pretty much put our bodies back to where they were before we went. Good chiros are magicians in my opinion.
Back to gluten, my osteopenia is caused by being undiagnosed for so many years. Gluten intolerance causes malabsorption issues and the body cannot absorb different vitamins and minerals or use them properly. (Osteoporosis is often one of the first signs of gluten issues.) I have to have a yearly bone density scan now. My son also has gluten issues and he has mild scoliosis. There does seem to be a higher incidence of scoliosis and celiac/gluten issues. I mentioned my joint issues caused by gluten in my other post ... back pain, arthritis (osteo, rheumatoid), etc. can all be related to gluten (as well as a ton of other issues, but too much to report here). Celiac/gluten intolerance have been thought to be rare illnesses, but in truth they are far more common than most diseases and treated by a gluten-free diet. I know that my knee pain went away almost immediately after going gluten free. I have read of many others whose back pain, etc. went away right away also. A celiac teenager was becoming an invalid due to back/disc issues when her mom realized that she had been feeding her gluten unknowingly. Within 2 weeks, she was back to her normal self. Sorry to go on a bit, but it's a subject near and dear and related to the topic. There is a simple test for gluten sensitivity. You can try going gluten free, but I recommend getting tested first. Better back health to all of us I hope in the near future.