The Medical Saga: New Diagnosis - Scoliosis

In my last post (which was Monday, sorry about that long absence this week.  I was traveling on business and I'm not motivated enough for a week's worth of scheduled posts, especially after a busy weekend.)  Anyway, as I was saying, in my last post, I mentioned physical therapy.

I am now going to physical therapy twice a week for my scoliosis.  Yep, I have scoliosis.

If you read back through a lot of my past posts, you'll see me complaining about my back pain.  My back primarily hurts in my upper back and more on the right side, right between my spine and shoulder blade.  I just assumed that it was due to the stress I carry in my back.  I'm a very anxious person, and I have an incredibly stressful job.  Every time I go in for a massage, they mention how incredibly tight my muscles are.  When I leave, I always feel better. But just 24 hours later, my back is beginning to hurt.  It never occurred to me that there might be something more serious wrong.

That is, until about a month ago when I went to get a massage and the therapist asked, "Has anyone ever told you you have scoliosis?"

Actually, when I was very young, somewhere around the age of 11-12, a doctor told me I had a slight curvature in my spine.  I was told that is common in young girls as they begin to grow during puberty.
And it was never brought up again.  Never checked again.  I guess because I never complained about my back.

"How did none of your doctors catch that the last 8 years?" Mom asked me.  I've had countless x-rays and scans done in which my spine would be clearly visible.  My assumption is that they were/are far more concerned and focused on cancer and it's complications to worry about how straight (or not straight) my spine was.

After that massage, I made an appointment with my primary doctor (for my spine but also to check out a cyst...or something, I have growing in my hand.  I'm telling ya, the medical issues just don't stop for me.)  I went in for that appointment and I explained everything I've written in this post.  She said, "Well, I'm going to have you lift up your shirt, put your hands straight out, then bend over so I can get a good look at your spine."  She steps behind me, lifts my shirt, and with my hands still at my side, she says, "Oh girl, I can see the curve.  Go ahead and bend over though."  Sure enough, my spine curves, near the top.

A week later, I received a call from a rehabilitation center with my referral and we set up my first appointment, which was last week.
I went in and my therapist did an assessment.  It consisted of him looking and feeling my back in various positions, watching how my all the components of my back bend and move, strength tests, and lots of talking about my lifestyle, discomfort, etc.

In the end, he said my scoliosis is not that bad.  It won't require surgery or even a back brace but just simple PT twice a week for at least 8 weeks.
My spine curves slightly to the left, near the top, pretty much between the shoulder blades.  This is causing additional pull on the muscles to the right.  Which is why my pain is mainly concentrated on that side.
He said my back muscles, where they attach to the spine, felt like picking guitar strings and they shouldn't be that tight.  He notices that I sit with my right shoulder a little higher and leaning a little to one side, which I do subconsciously to offset my pain, but it's really making thing worse.
When I bend over, my lower back muscles stretch to allow the bending, but my upper back muscles stay tight and don't really allow my upper back to bend as easily.
After doing various strength exercises, it was obvious that muscles that use my upper back are much weaker and the right side is significantly weaker than the left.
After all this talk, he had me lay down on my stomach and he pushed, pulled, stretched, etc to attempt to loosen my muscles.

My first two or three PT sessions are going to consist of him applying pressure to loosen those muscles, along with pulling, and stretching.  The sessions after those, we will focus on stretches and exercises for me to do as well as some strength building to compensate for the "damage" I've been doing.  After those 8 weeks of twice a week PT, I should be able to continue the stretches and exercises at home to help keep the pain and discomfort at bay.

[He did confirm that I also have tight muscles from things non-scoliosis related and said it was probably stress so he recommends staying up with monthly massages.  Don't have to tell me twice!!!]

So that is where I lie with all of this.  I'm really frustrated, because I seem to never be on top of my health.  If I overcome one thing, or get into a routine with a complication, something else has to creep in.  It gets really old.  I just want to be healthy and not have so many things to worry about!!!
However, I am thankful that this new issue isn't something severe and can be managed with stretching and exercise.  It'll be a slow process he said, but our hope is that in a year, there will no more pain and discomfort if I stay on top of our plan.  I'm thankful that after years of back pain, I actually have an answer and now, a solution.

Here's to a slow start of a pain-free back!!!!  I cannot wait for that day!!!


Do you have scoliosis?  Or back pain?  How do you manage it?

Celebrating an Anniversary & Fall Fun!!

Happy Monday y'all!!!  I haven't done a weekend recap in quite a while.  I know, you've all missed them.  In all seriousness, I know only my parents and a few friends truly care how I spent my weekend.  I really do these recaps for myself.  I love looking back each year and seeing what I did.  It's my like my online scrapbook.  Which becomes a real scrapbook because there's an awesome site where you can turn your blog into a book!

But now I'm rambling.

This weekend was rather busy.  The last few weekends we haven't done too much because either Nick's been working, I've been feeling crappy, or we've just had too much to do around the house.

Friday, after I arrived home from physical therapy (more on that in another post), I showered and we went out to celebrate our engagement anniversary.  Friday marked 5 years since Nicholas flew into St. Louis (I had no idea he was there), sent me to a spa to get a massage and manicure (while he showed up at my parents house to ask for their blessing), then sent me all over St. Louis on a scavenger hunt to places that had significance to us before finding him, on one knee.  (Followed by dinner at Ruth's Chris then off to see Phantom of the Opera and the next day, a hot air balloon ride at sunset).  It was seriously one of the best days of my life!  We usually celebrate each year, nothing big or fancy, but just a way of recognizing that this day is still important to us.  We went out to dinner and then headed next door to see Gone Girl (sooooo good!!!  I'm normally disappointed in books turned movie but I really loved it!  Although bitty be CRAZY!  So much creepier watching it!).

Afterwards we just came home and snuggled up in bed reminiscing about this day five years ago.  We love to relive these old moments, talking about the thoughts and emotions running through us at that time.  And who doesn't love going to sleep with happy thoughts??

Saturday we decided to engage in some fall fun.  It definitely didn't feel like fall at 90 degrees and sweating our butts off, but if you wait for fall weather to do fall things here in Florida, you'll be picking rotting pumpkins in December.  So off to the "farm" we went!!! We arrived and walked around to see what all they had going on.  There were so many various games, lots of food, a pumpkin patch, animals to pet, horse back rides, a hayride, corn maze, etc.

We hopped on the hayride and rode over to the corn maze.  This was the design for this year at Conner's A-Maize-Ing Acres

via

The maze wasn't too difficult and I think that's because the corn wasn't very high.  It was a little easy to just glance over the corn stalks and see what direction you needed to take and which was a dead end.  None the less, we had a lot of fun!  (Other than sweating off about 10 pounds).

Afterwards we headed over to the pumpkin patch and picked out our pumpkins.  We don't yet know what we'll be carving, which made choosing the right pumpkin a little difficult.  I just randomly picked a medium sized pumpkin and Nick chose a one a little bit larger.  I forgot take photos there so we snapped a quick photo before hopping in the car.

The rest of the evening was spent at home, unfortunately watching our Redbirds lose Game 1 of the NLCS to the Giants.

(clearly taken at the start of the game when I was still happy)

Sunday was just a productive day around the house.  We did laundry, cleaned and organized the dining room, did some work in the garage, pulled our fall decor out of the attic and I got a very small start on the fall decorating.  Unfortunately I leave tomorrow to go out of town for work so I won't be getting to do more decorating until next weekend.  But this shall do for now.  At least anyone who comes to the door will think we've got it together.  But if they come further than the entryway, they'll realize this is all I've done.

The evening ended with a walk because Yadi is fat (we've been saying this for a while, but the vet confirmed it...in nicer terms.  But that's a post for another day) and we met the cutest little 7 month old German Shorthaired Pointer!!!  The woman saw our little pointer pack (we were walking with our neighbor and her Vizsla) and she came out.  We're definitely want to plan a puppy play date soon!

Now the evening is winding down as I'm fully packed for my trip, we just consumed a delicious dinner (that I didn't cook, which is a win), and we're currently watching our Cardinals.  They're winning 2-0 right now so let's hope we can keep this lead!