javaboy
17th January 2007, 07:01 AM
Hi all!
New to this forum, but not to kyphoscoliosis, or to some of you, who may have seen me poking about on the forums at scoliosis.org.
At age 27, I was coerced by my then-fiancee, now wife, to go and get my back checked out by my doctor. I was having chronic migraines and neck pain, couldn't lift anything above my head, and seemed to have a bit of a hunchback. The doctor sent me off for x-rays, and the rest is history.
They found an anterior unsegmented bar from T9 to T11. It hadn't been detected when I was younger because it's fairly light on the curves - 21o scoliosis, 42o kyphosis, and hence underneath the usual curves they operate at.
They've left it where they found it (it seems to be stable enough, and the curve is low, so operating was ruled out). So the battle has been to sort out the muscles around it that have been giving me all sorts of problems.
My migraines were linked back to an imbalance between my trapezius and sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscles. My traps are too weak, and my SCMs are chronically tight - apparently a classic symptom of spending far too much time leaning forward and hunching over. When they're overworked, these muscles inflame and trap nerves, causing the migraines, and some killer pain to go with it!
I've spent the last couple of years on Pilates and swimming to correct this, but it's a slow process. We're trying to correct 27 years of incorrect muscle use, so I'm having to rebuild muscle by muscle.
Pleasure to have found you all! Hope to help a few of you who are not as far down the line as me! :-)
New to this forum, but not to kyphoscoliosis, or to some of you, who may have seen me poking about on the forums at scoliosis.org.
At age 27, I was coerced by my then-fiancee, now wife, to go and get my back checked out by my doctor. I was having chronic migraines and neck pain, couldn't lift anything above my head, and seemed to have a bit of a hunchback. The doctor sent me off for x-rays, and the rest is history.
They found an anterior unsegmented bar from T9 to T11. It hadn't been detected when I was younger because it's fairly light on the curves - 21o scoliosis, 42o kyphosis, and hence underneath the usual curves they operate at.
They've left it where they found it (it seems to be stable enough, and the curve is low, so operating was ruled out). So the battle has been to sort out the muscles around it that have been giving me all sorts of problems.
My migraines were linked back to an imbalance between my trapezius and sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscles. My traps are too weak, and my SCMs are chronically tight - apparently a classic symptom of spending far too much time leaning forward and hunching over. When they're overworked, these muscles inflame and trap nerves, causing the migraines, and some killer pain to go with it!
I've spent the last couple of years on Pilates and swimming to correct this, but it's a slow process. We're trying to correct 27 years of incorrect muscle use, so I'm having to rebuild muscle by muscle.
Pleasure to have found you all! Hope to help a few of you who are not as far down the line as me! :-)