So scared it could get worse.. Feel so depressed

[littleone]

Hey everyone..

I am a 28yrs old, female, married and have a 17 months old son.
I was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 15 with a curve of 24 degrees. Mom saw a dress I was wearing with a back zipper to appear twisted, the zipper was having an S shape.. so that's when we went to check my back.. Then they got me into Global Postural Reeducation (GPR) program.. and curve went down to 21 in 4 weeks. This treatment was done while I lived in Brasil.

At age of 19 we moved countries and went to a chiropractor, and he was helping me do some exercises. To be honest, no idea if he was doing something right? because he wasnt actually explaining to me a thing but just doing things..
This went on for months then I stopped going. Then got married at age 23 and since the last execises didnt do any. Got pregnant at 26, and gained 20 kilos. I still havent lost them but the pain in my back has been horrible. Non stop. Feels like pins and needles. Then went to a doc to check on my curve and they found out its 34 So depressed. I know there cases worse than mine, but I felt I wanted to die.

I have few questions:

1. Will my back get worse? I always think I will eventually get a surgery at the age of 40 dont know why..

2. Will losing weight help me relieve pain? I still got around 7kg to be where I was.

3. I feel so self consicious I dont even want to wear tight shirts. Do we see it worse than people do from the other side? my husband tells me there isnt much difference at all.

4. At the moment I am doing no treatment. I went to see a chiropractor here, we live in Qatar now, and she taught me some exercises but honestly I am scared to do them always and maybe it could make my back worse? At my age, what kind of program can I do?

5. I do weight lifting. I read dead lifts and squats arent good to do when having scoli. I do squats with a ball supporting my back on the wall sliding down with no pain. Will these affect my back? will they make it worse? Dead lifts is amazing to build up muscle on the back which is something good for people with scoli.

6. The side of the bump on my back, which is the right, seems always to tighten when I am tired, it hurts, and feels like pins and needles.. how can I control this?

I wanted to mention that I am thinking of going to a psychologist. I need to talk to someone about what I feel, I think I might be developing depression from scoliosis. God, kudos to everyone going thru surgery stage, you are all heroes to me.

Thanks everyone in advance.

[LindaRacine]

1. Will my back get worse? I always think I will eventually get a surgery at the age of 40 dont know why..

There's no way to know for certain. A majority people with curves below 50 degrees at skeletal maturity do not progress to require surgery.

2. Will losing weight help me relieve pain? I still got around 7kg to be where I was.

I don't think anyone has ever correlated BMI with pain. However, if you can figure out a way to exercise without causing more pain, that would always be a good thing.

3. I feel so self consicious I dont even want to wear tight shirts. Do we see it worse than people do from the other side? my husband tells me there isnt much difference at all.

I can tell you that I never noticed scoliosis curves until I started having trouble with my own curves at the age of about 35.

4. At the moment I am doing no treatment. I went to see a chiropractor here, we live in Qatar now, and she taught me some exercises but honestly I am scared to do them always and maybe it could make my back worse? At my age, what kind of program can I do?

There is no evidence for or against chiropractic for scoliosis.

5. I do weight lifting. I read dead lifts and squats arent good to do when having scoli. I do squats with a ball supporting my back on the wall sliding down with no pain. Will these affect my back? will they make it worse? Dead lifts is amazing to build up muscle on the back which is something good for people with scoli.

Again, there is no evidence one way or the other. It seems to me, however, that lifting is probably detrimental in terms of degeneration of the aging spine.

6. The side of the bump on my back, which is the right, seems always to tighten when I am tired, it hurts, and feels like pins and needles.. how can I control this?

I would personally try things like yoga (http://www.yogaforscoliosis) or Pilates (http://www.pilates-pro.com/pilates-p...scoliosis.html).

I wanted to mention that I am thinking of going to a psychologist. I need to talk to someone about what I feel, I think I might be developing depression from scoliosis. God, kudos to everyone going thru surgery stage, you are all heroes to me.

I think that's an excellent idea. I've always been really interested in hearing what a psychologist would have to say about the body image issue. If you hear any revelations in that area, I hope you'll want to share them with us.

Regards,
Linda

[Confusedmom]

I had a lot of pain post-pregnancy that required physical therapy. Once the pregnancy hormones were completely out of my system (one is relaxin that makes your joints relax) and I built my abs back up, I felt much better. That was a year-plus after the pregnancy and several months after I stopped nursing. Give it some time and do exercise when you can; it may help the pain.

If you are depressed, a psychologist is a good idea--scoli or no. I think a lot of us on here have been depressed about scoli at one point or another.

I would be shocked if your curve is noticeable to other people at 34 degrees. Most people don't notice mine--at 68 degrees! We are always hardest on ourselves.

I do hope you feel better soon. Scoli is no fun, but there are lots of worse things out there!

Evelyn

[hikerchick]

I have few questions:

1. Will my back get worse? I always think I will eventually get a surgery at the age of 40 dont know why..

2. Will losing weight help me relieve pain? I still got around 7kg to be where I was.

3. I feel so self consicious I dont even want to wear tight shirts. Do we see it worse than people do from the other side? my husband tells me there isnt much difference at all.

4. At the moment I am doing no treatment. I went to see a chiropractor here, we live in Qatar now, and she taught me some exercises but honestly I am scared to do them always and maybe it could make my back worse? At my age, what kind of program can I do?

5. I do weight lifting. I read dead lifts and squats arent good to do when having scoli. I do squats with a ball supporting my back on the wall sliding down with no pain. Will these affect my back? will they make it worse? Dead lifts is amazing to build up muscle on the back which is something good for people with scoli.

6. The side of the bump on my back, which is the right, seems always to tighten when I am tired, it hurts, and feels like pins and needles.. how can I control this?

I wanted to mention that I am thinking of going to a psychologist. I need to talk to someone about what I feel, I think I might be developing depression from scoliosis. God, kudos to everyone going thru surgery stage, you are all heroes to me.

Thanks everyone in advance.

I'm so sorry. I have had times in my life that my scoliosis caused depression and it is hard to deal with/accept.

1. No one knows if your spine will get worse and no doctor can tell you for sure.

2. Any extra weight that you are carrying around is hard on your body. It puts extra pressure on joints, bones, the spine etc.

5. I lift weights as well and love it. There is a benefit to keeping your muscles and your body healthy and strong. I don't do things that put pressure on my spine (squats or anything with weight on the shoulders, jumping running, etc.). I also do yoga and want to get into pilates. I believe that staying active has kept me mostly pain free for years.

Hang in there. Everyone is different. For me, it helps to look at the things that I CAN do, and not focus on that which I cannot. I am greatful for the body that I do have, it could always be worse. I still have my bad days though. Probably we all do.

[jrnyc]

Hi little one
i am so sorry that you are going thru physical and emotional distress...
i would echo what others have said...about weight, about no one noticing about us what we notice about ourselves...all of it...

when you describe pain as pins and needles..that is usually caused by nerves....i am not a medical professional, but i know personally that there are treatments pain doctors can do to address that kind of pain... i dont know what doctors you have access to in the country you are in now...i do hope that you can consult with a spine specialist and a pain doctor...

as a retired clinical social worker, i think therapy would be helpful...any illness or condition can bring depression!

best of luck
jess

[JRStambaugh]

Hi Little one...

I'm no expert on scoliosis... I have lower back curvature, ands my daughter has uper and lower scoliosis... and like you I lift weights... not like I did twenty years ago, but at age 46 certain lifting does cause some back discomfort. I believe that part of your discomfort, like mine is based on the condition that the muscles in your back are also affected by the curvature. Those to the inside of the curve are contracted, those to the outside are stretched... neither condition being overly condusive for weight trainingso to speak. Consequently, when you lift with those muscles, both sides are affected differently. You may want to try some stretching excercises, i.e. stretch the muscles on the inside of the curve as much as possible prior to lifting the weights... (side/hip stretches in the opposite direction of the curvature)... I find this does assist me with the discomfort a bit... unfortunately, such stretching is rather limited... but I also agree with several others in this thread... staying fit is never a "bad" thing... just be careful and don't start training for the power lifting competitions... low weight, higher reps... hope this helps...