29 June 2013 is International Scoliosis Awareness Day.
I want to give you a short info first.
Scoliosis (from Ancient Greek: σκολίωσις skoliosis "obliquity, bending") is a medical condition in which a person's spine is curved from side to side. Although it is a complex three-dimensional deformity, on an X-ray, viewed from the rear, the spine of an individual with scoliosis may look more like an "S" or a "C", rather than a straight line.
Scoliosis is typically classified as either congenital (caused by vertebral anomalies present at birth), idiopathic (cause unknown, subclassified as infantile, juvenile, adolescent, or adult, according to when onset occurred), or secondary to another primary condition.
Secondary scoliosis may be the result a neuromuscular condition (spina bifida, cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy, or physical trauma), or syndromes such as Chiari malformation.
Recent longitudinal studies reveal that the most common form of the condition, late-onset idiopathic scoliosis, is physiologically harmless and self-limiting.The rarer forms of scoliosis pose risks of complications.
Patients having reached skeletal maturity are less likely to have a worsening case. Some severe cases of scoliosis can lead to diminishing lung capacity, putting pressure on the heart, and restricting physical activities.
The signs of scoliosis can include:
Uneven musculature on one side of the spine
A rib prominence and/or a prominent shoulder blade, caused by rotation of the ribcage in thoracic scoliosis
Uneven hips, arms or leg lengths
Slow nerve action (in some cases)
Maybe for the first time I am finding the courage to talk about my fight with Scoliosis.
I was 6 years old when I was first diagnosed with Scoliosis, I am now 30 something and when I was younger Scoliosis was not as common or medicine-medical science was not as developed as it is now.
In anyways It was a hard procedure. I first started my treatment with physiotherapy when they understood just physiotherapy was not working, I had to wear brace's, with metal buckets.
Also my shoulders were not at the same level (still not)
For a year so both by wearing a brace and physiotherapy it prevented my scoliosis worsening.
After that my scoliosis worsened, I suspect from they concentrated physiotherapy only on the wrong side of my body so infect made the scoliosis worse.
Wearing brace with metal buckets made holes in most of my clothes, when people asked me why I always had holes in my clothes, I had to put up lies that I made those holes with pins because it is very trendy, and that lie worked within few days most of my friends made holes in their t-shirts.
Brace bruised my hips, it restricted my breasts.
It went on like this until the age of 12, by using different braces, by doing different physiotherapies 5 days a week.
But none of those stopped my Scoliosis. So we were in search of good hospital and a doctor.
We finally found one in Bad Wildungen (Bath of Germany) Werner-Wicker-Klinik.
It was not easy, they drilled my skull, I had to wear Halo, they put me into a wheel chair, so I could carry weights and they can place rod into my back, I carried weights even when I was sleeping, everyday a nurse put us to sleep and a nurse woke us up.
We had to woke up early for a morning gym.
I remember that they took water from my belly(Lumbar Puncture), I might be wrong at the medical terms, please check with your docs.I still do not know why, I know that they took
My hospital was so good, both doctors, nurses, the environment, the hospital was build in the forests, so you could always take fresh air.
I can say this comparing to the luxury of those years my hospital was like a 5 star luxury hotel.
They were doing everything to make you feel at home.
One day they decided that it is my time to have a surgery.
It lasted about 6-8 hours, As I woke up as they were taking me from Surgery room to my room in Intensive Care, as I was going to my room, my friend was going in to surgery room.
As I always mention on my blog, I am a person who can not sit still, I had lots of pain after the surgery, you start to feel the pain as you slowly got out of anesthesia.
As I moved a lot they took me into a temporary brace. The injections they were giving me caused inflammation on my legs, when I told it to docs of course they did not believe me. But I asked them to cut it for a week, if there was no difference than I would be happy to continue to injections.
You know what is worse, sending a friend of yours to surgery, waiting for her to come out of surgery and getting the news of her death on the surgery table.
She was 18 years old but she has the body of a 4 year old & intelligence of a 7 year old.
I do still remember that day since like yesterday.
Living with rods is not easy, you have to be careful in every stage of your life.
After the surgery I had to be careful on every single thing I do in my life.
I learned to woke up from my bed on balance, I stil use that style to wake up from my bed, or from the sofa I'm having a nap.
I was not allowed to carry more than a 1kg, Now as a matter of fact I do have to carry heavy items.
Scoliosis puts pressure on your lungs as the curvature gets more severe.
If you have your scoliosis at a young age like me, most probably it would affect your height. After the surgery I stopped growing. :(
It is not easy and they use different cures on different people, I had friends who had halos like me but they were only using it when they were sleeping.
I do not know what to say, in away I am glad that I had my surgery but than again I have to live with all those scars on my back forehead and on my head.
My doctor was Dr. Zielke, I do not think that he is working as a surgeon right now but I am sure his daughter is replacing him.
PS: My Scoliosis is not Congenital.
Image sources : https://plus.google.com/s/Werner%20Wicker%20Klinik
www.google.com
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
MYSTICAL MAKEUP AND BEAUTY
Follow @makeuptemple
