To the osteopath

'It's not fibromyalgia, that's absolute rubbish in your case. What you have is chronic muscle tension and with exercise, it can be managed."

That laid to rest whatever lingering concern I have with regard to the ache in my back. And further strengthens my resolve to make back-friendly exercises a key part of my lifestyle. The upside? I'll probably have really strong gluteus maximus.

CoreSuspend Class

I was urged by the kind lady at my Pilates studio to give CoreSuspend class a try. I was a little apprehensive at first but it was a good workout! It was demanding but fun at the same time. What I like best was the superman pose, it's like flying without wings. The instructor was also very understanding about my jitters when it came to inversion and I managed it under his supervision. Looking forward to more classes!

Pilates class today

It's the second group class of ten that I signed up. I took up pilates at a friend's recommendation, and it helps me to be aware of the different muscles that keep movement purposeful and body strong. How different it feels! I still have a long way to go, but it's a good start!

In today's class, after a 3 months' break to give the back pain a rest, I was able to follow most of the movements on the reformer except the last 2 sets. One requires me to balance on a ball while working the legs and the abs, it was difficult and I opted to just lie on the reformer without the ball. The other requires me to work the inner thighs and butt. The repetitions of forward movements, lifts and circular movements tired the muscles out, a clear indication that I need to do this set on my own daily to build up the muscles.

It feels good to sweat, really :)

Idiopathic scoliosis?

This word has been part of  my vocabulary since I was 13. And up until now, I do not know what it means. Or to be more accurate, I do know what it means but the meaning sheds no further light to one being diagnosed with it.

Idiopathic: no known cause

And that is true of up to 80% of scoliosis patients. Why does the spine curve abnormally in otherwise healthy adolescents? There have been many causes suggested, nutrition, genetic, environmental but none of them were ever proven.

Diagnosis is apparently made via exclusion, once a pronounced curve is observed. The good news of being diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis meant that you have been tested negative for paralytic, neurological, congenital causes. The condition is therefore, unlikely to be complicated by further issues.

However, as one who has been there, and experienced the many questions associated with the cause being unknown, I still wonder when will medical knowledge and technology be able to shed light on the cause of the majority of scoliosis patients. I wonder about this because knowing the cause would likely help future parents and healthcare professionals better prevent it from developing in the young child.

Introduction

"Scoliosis is an important and common orthopedic problem. At it's most typical, it is a deformity of adolescent girls, coming at an age when they are self-conscious and have a dawning awareness of the need to be attractive. Its development in a previously healthy girl can seem a catastrophe, perhaps more so because at this sensitive and inarticulate age, it is rarely expressed in words and is exaggerated by its very unexpectedness and the mystery to its cause.... There is usually no complaint, no hesitation on the part of the young girl faced with the rigors of treatment, a measure of her deep desire to be made normal. Although the patient may be grateful for what the surgeon has tried to do, everyone with experience in this aspect of surgical endeavor will have had many failures and disappointment."

An introduction to a medical text about scoliosis written in 1976 still strikes a chord with a post-operative scoliosis patient reading it in October 2013. I write to share information about scoliosis that I come across. Maybe these notes would come in handy one day to the young person looking for an answer, worried parents looking for a solution. I don't profess to be able to provide either of them, but hope that in the sharing, will help ease the anxiety.