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Your compassion is underwhelming. And how do you know the girl from school suffered no ill effects? Because she never announced them?
My daughter was in a brace for a few years in middle school. Although no one cared, she was extremely self-conscious about it and it came at a time when fitting in was so important.
So what's the answer? What is the alternative? You were never told to do anything to help strengthen your back as it was straightened?.
Typical... (blame the victim) um I obviously was fully compliant with the best medical advice.
The problem is, that medical advice is wrong and a joke. They just "hoped" it would work and told me that because they had no other options. Most people chose the surgery. My mom didn't buy it. After seeing how many people had disasters with that... I am glad she didn't. But we were lied to. They didn't know for a fact that once I stopped growing my curves would not get worse... and they told us that as medical fact. So obviously she didn't choose the surgery.
Exercises don't work either.
They proved that the problem is that not everyone's back grows completely evenly on each side of the vertebras. "exercises" won't do it. Just stupid busy work that they gave to people that they didn't have a solution for.
The good news is that it seems you are perfectly able to live a normal life with severe curves. I don't particularly have back pain.
An irony is that my sister who doesn't have scoliosis, is actually disabled by back pain.
Personally I would like to try a brace again, at least at night, but they won't do that either for people over a certain age.
In fact there is really no option for scoliosis. The only people to see are surgeons... who will be useless without surgery, and chiropractors.
As a point of information, the recommended surgical treatment for scoliosis changed considerably during the mid-1960's; fusion of the spinal column was often passed up in favor of permanent steel rods or clamps attached to the affected portions of the spine, which permitted fewer body casts, smaller incisions, and less-invasive surgery.
I did the brace for 10 years as a kid. Whet thought all kinds of mental damage. I am amazed I am not in a metal institution with the cruelty given out.
Was told it would never progress if I did the brace.
LIES. I am 50 now and it definitely progressed. But there is nothing they can do.
I did see a study of people who had scoliosis before the surgery was a thing. Most had no pain even with very had curves.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reneeh63
So what's the answer? What is the alternative? You were never told to do anything to help strengthen your back as it was straightened?
We had a girl in my school who wore a brace for years...she was actually one of the most popular in her class - no mental damage at all from wearing a brace...
Quote:
Originally Posted by reebo
Your compassion is underwhelming. And how do you know the girl from school suffered no ill effects? Because she never announced them?
My daughter was in a brace for a few years in middle school. Although no one cared, she was extremely self-conscious about it and it came at a time when fitting in was so important.
Poster talks about "cruelty given out"...I mention a kid who was NOT teased. Reebo - you talk about your daughter being self-conscious though "no one cared".
I'm specifically saying that suffering from self-consciousess is very different from getting teased by others...and that being teased is not universal...and being mistreated medically is not either.
Let me begin by saying that I was diagnosed as a severe dorsal scoliotic (by the same orthopedist who treated my brother's two clubbed feet) at the age of ten, in the fall of 1959; treatments were a lot less individualized and sophisticated at the time.
My parents wasted one visit to a chiropractor -- then turned things over to someone who took things seriously.
Three days after Christmas, I went into a full body cast -- head to knees, into which I was confined for eight weeks; ten days later came seven hours of surgery to fuse six vertebrae; but it was easier from there on.
The original cast was replaced with something along the lines of a sleeveless undershirt (still made of plaster; I wore it for another three months -- then a year in a canvas brace).
But I'm still alive, walking, and talking back at age 71 -- and no one refers to me as Quasimodo.
I'm told that most of the "heavy" treatments for scoliosis have since been scaled back -- the legs, for example, are seldom immobilized, as mine were.
But make no mistake -- we're dealing with some very serious consequences if nothing is done.
Seventeen years after the main event, the man who saved most of the better things in life for me passed on; His name was Leonard F Bush -- I pass his portrait in the hospital lobby almost every time I visit, and I always pay tribute.
To anyone dealing with this issue, my wishes for a fast, safe and effective recovery -- but don't be tempted into cutting too many corners.
Well, you make it sound as if no chiropractor took scoliosis seriously. That's a major part of what they address. My useless POS pediatrician told my mom over and over that my brother and I didn't have it even though we did. When I told him about my headaches, which any competent MD could have diagnosed as chronic migraine, POS said, and I quote, "You better get used to it." Once I had medical insurance and could get to a chiro, my problem started to improve -- fewer headaches, less pain all over, better balance, better everything, frankly. Now, by studiously doing the exercises and following up with my chiro the curvature is markedly harder to see on x-rays.
In my training in the early 90s, I was taught that there was no treatment. Observation until bad enough to brace, then brace until bad enough for surgery, and you hoped that they stopped growing before the curve was bad enough to require surgery. I was also taught that physical therapy did NOT work. I always wondered about that, since children who had muscle weakness from cerebral palsy or stroke or muscular dystrophy very often develop scoliosis. Seemed only logical that if uneven muscle pull on the back should cause it, that PT to even out the muscle strength should improve it.
So, when my own daughter was 7, I checked her and noticed that she had scoliosis (as seen by uneven back height when bending over). I freaked, did a lot of reading, and found an article by a pediatric orthopedic surgeon named Vert Mooney, MD. He had theorized that the reason that the PT hadn't worked, is that the kids probably never did the exercises at home. Instead, he had the young girls with scoliosis come in and do PT in the office thrice a week - and their curves didn't get worse! So I called him. I asked him where I could get this for my daughter. He said, "No one believes me. No one will let go of this idea that PT doesn't work."
I searched, and found a local PT who knew of his work, knew what to do. She tested my daughter's back muscle strength, showed us how weak she was on one side, and gave us exercises to do at home to try to strengthen the weak side. We did the exercises with her every day. Not only did the curve not get worse, it went away completely within three months. We stopped, and six months later the curve was back. We did another three months of the exercises, it went away again, and this time, it never came back. Daughter grew 12 inches from the time I noticed the curve, at age 7, until she was finished growing at about age 14.
I started sending all my patients on whom I picked up pre-adolescent scoliosis. They ALL improved greatly. NONE had to go into a brace, let alone have surgery. I started telling all my colleagues, and those who would listen, sent their patients too, and saw the same results.
I don't know if there's been any change in the party line of PT doesn't work for scoliosis. But the reality is, it DOES work - if you pick it up early, before they're advanced in puberty, and if some adult actually DOES the exercises with the kid every day. You may have to do the exercises on and off for a few years, until they're nearly done growing, but that's a heck of a lot better than a back brace, or the rod surgery.
I did the brace for 10 years as a kid. Whet thought all kinds of mental damage. I am amazed I am not in a metal institution with the cruelty given out.
Was told it would never progress if I did the brace.
LIES. I am 50 now and it definitely progressed. But there is nothing they can do.
I did see a study of people who had scoliosis before the surgery was a thing. Most had no pain even with very had curves.
i was born in 1958 and the treatment at that time was the cast thing and surgeries. which i did not undergo, although i was told by every doctor i have seen since that i should had that treatment and they were amazed that i did not.
the reason i did not have that ordeal with the cast and brace and whatever, is because of the extreme views of my mother which in many ways were horrible to be put through as a child, but in the instance of the scoliosis, it kept me away from that invasive fad of the time. she basically refused to take me and my brother to the doctor while we were growing up. for anything. pretty much ever. i remember as a kid getting horrible painful headaches and lying in bed in agony. she gave me baby aspirin and ginger ale and that was it. as an adult looking back i am appalled at this. she simply refused to take us to doctors. we had our immunizations as little kids, and that was it. it wasn't until i was 13 years old, and was chosen at school to attend a camp for smart kids for a few weeks one summer, that my mother took me to the doctor, because a physical exam was required. of course the doctor commented on the scoliosis and i remember him being quite stern with my mother about why wasn't i ever treated and he was mad because "now it is too late."
when i got older i asked my mother about why didn't she ever take us to the doctor. i could see her struggling with powerful emotions, her guilt about that as a mother; and also her own strong feelings about why she would not take us. i'm still not clear why she wouldn't. perhaps some trauma she had in her own life. perhaps fear of her own. perhaps hiding the inner workings of our family from prying eyes. what she did say over and over is "going to doctors is what makes you sick." i don't know if she genuinely believed that, i kinda think not. she also told me later that yeah i did have back pain as a kid and she "thought it was the mattress" so they "got a new mattress." she "didn't know" it was because of the scoliosis, and then she got defensive and that conversation ended.
but it strangely had some positive benefits for me. for starters, not having that terrible cast brace surgery for scoliosis which was in vogue at the time and they now have done away with. for another what i saw was that twisted belief she had that being healthy comes from not going to the doctor, it oddly strangely seemed to work for her. she was remarkably healthy. i think she was in her 70s before she started having to be seen for medical stuff, and she lived to be 91. i don't remember her ever being sick the whole time i was growing up. and i also recognize that the belief itself (like a placebo) can have a powerful effect in keeping a person healthy. or we could just have good genes.
with the headaches i got when i was little, i remember one time was so bad, she finally called a doctor that went to their church, he was a pediatrician, and she "talked him out of" giving her some pills for me to take. but even then, when it was that bad, no doctor visit. again as an adult looking back i am appalled at this. i remember asking her once when i was an adult and had kids myself, asking her how did she get her diaphragm replaced (birth control diaphragm) if she never went to the doctor. she said she would just go to the drug store and "talk the pharmacist" into providing it for her. She was quite proficient at lying to people and she said she told him she lost the prescription and she would "talk him into it." i was incredulous and told her so. she said if they didn't believe her or wouldn't give it to her she drove to a different drug store until she found one that would.
anyway my scoliosis has not given me any pain or trouble for most of my life. occasionally i would have pain and one doctor (which i saw on my own once i was no longer living at home) had given me a paper printout with floor exercises to do, and i'd do those for a few days, and the pain would go away. it's probably been 35 years since i've done any of those exercises. or had any pain. so no, my scoliosis has not bothered me, it is severe enough for doctors to comment on, and i have asked a few different doctors over the years and they have all said it definitely is severe enough that had i gone to a doctor as a kid, they would have done the brace thing. this was before they did the scoliosis screening at schools, or else they would have caught it then.
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 01-28-2021 at 11:57 PM..
Just thinking about this as I do know 3 close people in my life who live with scoliosis and had they been treated very young could this condition have been reduced. Maybe, good to think about though. I know there are chiros who specialize in baby care.
That trip coming into life can sure do some damage.
It all depends on the severity. There is no way my son could have lived with his scoliosis. His was quite severe.
There is no way I would taken him to a chiropractor. Fortunately he had one of the best surgeons in the World perform his operation. He has been pain free and lived a normal life since his surgery. (He was 18 and now 31)
anyway my scoliosis has not given me any pain or trouble for most of my life. occasionally i would have pain and one doctor (which i saw on my own once i was no longer living at home) had given me a paper printout with floor exercises to do, and i'd do those for a few days, and the pain would go away. it's probably been 35 years since i've done any of those exercises. or had any pain. so no, my scoliosis has not bothered me, it is severe enough for doctors to comment on, and i have asked a few different doctors over the years and they have all said it definitely is severe enough that had i gone to a doctor as a kid, they would have done the brace thing. this was before they did the scoliosis screening at schools, or else they would have caught it then.
Thanks for the comments. My mom did her best for me. I will never blame her. It was a tough decision.
The brace was largely useless other than destroying my self esteem. Even now, somehow that process is the BIG JOKE of Hollywood, made fun of in movies like sixteen candles and Romny and Michelle's high school reunion. It reduced my curves from 45 /45 to 30/22. I haven't had them measured now but clearly they are up there again. Every doctor has to come running back to scream at me.. you have SEVERE -- scoliosis. No crap.
They tell me also I have severe arthritis but since I really don't have a ton of symptoms I think they are wrong that too.
I have a theory that your body adjusts to the scoliosis. If you go to any groups on facebook - I find the people who have the surgeries who seem to have the most problem / pain.
I was threatened with ideas that I would not be able to breathe or some such to get the surgery but that study I referenced from people who born with it pre surgery showed that didn't happen.
Thanks for the comments. My mom did her best for me. I will never blame her. It was a tough decision.
The brace was largely useless other than destroying my self esteem. Even now, somehow that process is the BIG JOKE of Hollywood, made fun of in movies like sixteen candles and Romny and Michelle's high school reunion. It reduced my curves from 45 /45 to 30/22. I haven't had them measured now but clearly they are up there again. Every doctor has to come running back to scream at me.. you have SEVERE -- scoliosis. No crap.
They tell me also I have severe arthritis but since I really don't have a ton of symptoms I think they are wrong that too.
I have a theory that your body adjusts to the scoliosis. If you go to any groups on facebook - I find the people who have the surgeries who seem to have the most problem / pain.
I was threatened with ideas that I would not be able to breathe or some such to get the surgery but that study I referenced from people who born with it pre surgery showed that didn't happen.
I don’t know that everyone adjusts to it. I have a friend who found out he had it later in life (he was in his late 20s at the time) and he gets a lot of back pain if he is not active. He also has arthritis in his back. I think that points to physical therapy being better for it than some of the other methods unless it is really severe.
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