Compost Studios

I am a writer, nature lover, budding artist, photography enthusiast, and creative spirit reducing, reusing, and recycling midlife experiences through narrative, art, photos, and poetry. 

I can be reached at:

veronica@v-grrrl.com      

Backdoor
The Producers
Powered by Squarespace
 

Copyright 2005-2013

Veronica McCabe Deschambault, V-Grrrl in the Middle, Compost StudiosTM

Content (text and images) may not be cut, pasted, copied, reproduced, channeled, or broadcast online without written permission. If you like it, link to it! Do not move my content off this site. Thank you!

 

Disclosure

All items reviewed on this site have been purchased and used by the writer. Sale of items via Amazon links generates credits that can be redeemed for online purchases by the site owner. 

 

Advertise on this site

Contact me by e-mail for details. 

« Big Fat Loser | Main | The down side of healthy eating »
Monday
Apr032006

S is for Scoliosis

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

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (10)

My husband has mild scoliosis and our oldest son has it, too. No one's suggested surgery for either, though we're taking steps to get some kind of therapy for the oldest...and orthotics in his shoes. Hugs to you1
April 3, 2006 | Unregistered Commenterwordgirl
This was an incredibly interesting post for me. I have fairly mild scoliosis, knew about it from when I was young, but was never told about any therapy for it. My sister is 10 years older than I and has the rod in her back and was in a full body cast for 6 months in her teens. She is 44 and has had to give up running in the past few years. She has terrible bouts of pain.

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!
April 3, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterMega Mom
I've visited four different chiropractors over 18 years. They have slightly different techniques but overall I've gotten good to excellent results with all my treatments.

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!
April 3, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterV-Grrrl
I also have mild scoliosis, which they detected in middle school;I have never had it formally treated, aside from a trip to a orthopaedist who told me to "sit up straighter".

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.
April 3, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterGranola-grrrl
I am on a heating pad RIGHT NOW lol!
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?!
April 3, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterAmber
I've been fortunate thus far to have avoided most of the back pain so common in our family, so I don't have much experience in that area. I did work with a guy the past couple years at school who used to be a chiropractor and switched to teaching because he was so disgusted with his colleagues and the chiropractic "industry". I'd never really given it much thought before. I just assumed that chiropractors fixed backs. They're doctors. They surely would have the patient's best interests in mind. But he disagreed. He said that most of his colleagues knew just enough tricks to keep their patients coming back and their paychecks rolling in, usually by prescribing a long-term treatment which would draw off their patients' insurance. It was a disappointing glimpse into the profession. I still think that if it works for you, go for it. If it can ease the pain, *something* is working. My colleague, Fred, was one of those scary-smart guys--he knew a lot about everything. He knew muscle groups, bone structure, nerves, and knew where they needed to be for everything to be running smoothly, so I trusted his opinion--after all, he used to be one of them! Personally, I think there are probably a few questionable chiropractors out there who take advantage of people in pain--maybe a lot--but I've heard an equal number of stories (like yours!) from people who have had great success with chiropractics. Hang in there V-grrrl!
April 3, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterKatieJo
I have scoliosis and I wore a Milwaukee brace almost my entire freshman year in high school. I never had a bit of pain then and I'm so fortunate to say I don't suffer from pain now. My curve is not bad but the doctors could not decide if I had finished growing or not. There were big debates, my hand was x-rayed so to be on the safe side, they braced me. At 4 feet 9 1/2 inches I was finished with my growing so I probably didn't need to be braced but if there is any possibilty that it prevented me going through what V-Grrrl goes through today, then I'm glad I had it. Bracing does not cure you, it prevents the curve from getting worse. I'm not even sure if the ole Milwaukee is still in use today. As for your kids, do get them checked yearly or better yet you can do it yourself, periodically. Have your kid stand with straight legs and tell them to bend over like they are touching their toes, with their arms dangling and their heads dangling and relaxed. Check out their humped back, if one side appears to be higher than the other you should probably get them checked. We have spotted it in my 8 year old daughter and she's had her initial x-ray. Her curve is very slight but now we can monitor it. Our doctor told us that they don't even worry until the curve reaches 12 degrees and these days they opt for physical therapy exercises before doing anything else. I did those, too... well, sort of. If you or your spouse has scoliosis, the chances are higher that your kids could get it, so keep checking them!
April 4, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterShirl Grrrl
I get occasional muscle spasms in my back that are fairly debilitating, but nothing like what you are describing.
I'm sorry that you have such problems and I'm glad chiropractic works for you. Have you ever considered acupuncuture?
April 4, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterTB
My curve was initially measured at 38 degrees by the doctor at U.Va. Later measurements were less, more like 28 degrees, not because the curve had changed but because of the particular method used for measuring.
April 5, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterV-Grrrl
Dealing with the scoliosis and the related back pain on a daily basis must be incredibly hard. I don't have scoliosis, but I do have osteopenia and I do have lower back pain/piriformis issues. If you are not familiar with piriformis, it's the "cheek" muscle in your butt. Usually when it's irritated it's associated with sciatica also. Mine has been an issue for over two years now. At first the doctors said it was a sprained coccyx and to just give it time. After a while, I saw a chiro, and I liked her, but her treatments didn't seem to help. She recommended massages to get the pain out and they helped, but I couldn't go often enough for them to be worthwile and they were costly. I persevered with no treatment for a while ... sometimes I wasn't even aware of the problem much and sometimes it was excruciating--no rhyme or reason. My gluten doctor referred me to another chiro. He is wonderful, but the problem is that he is over an hour away. I'd go often if he was close by. I feel much better after I go to him, but again I can't go often enough to eliminate the problem. This problem is another reason for me to eliminate sugar as sugar increases inflammation. I also do epsom salt baths as you get magnesium from those and they help the muscles relax. I take a supplement called Bone Guard that contains calcium, magnesium, and zinc (calcium alone is not enough--works better with others). I have scheduled an appt next week for an ortho guy to see if he can offer any different options. Frankly, I don't expect a lot ... they typically x-ray or drug, but after all this time, I figure I should get more input.

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.
April 5, 2006 | Unregistered CommenterShirley

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.