Comments please on my spinal Xrays from June, fuzzy as it is...

[Back-out]

I hope this works and also that it can be enlarged. It's a bad 2-D down-load from a CD - but if it works out, it's better than nothing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/realityt...aM6_24nbjBgQE#

Note the lumbar kyphosis and the flatback. In reference to my thread about surgery - this shows why I'm concerned about creating a strong lordosis. (It's REALLY flat now! ).

Somehow, looking at these images, I can almost visualize that L kyphosis "popping up" (which it did, within the last few years) because of the flat back kind of "springing" it.

Likewise, I feel like my lost 4" went mostly into that kyphosis,

Does anyone have any words of wisdom about rotation? What about the kyphosis, flatback, DDD and any comments at all about them or anything else?

I can't make heads or tails of anything but the Cobb . They've been measured as L 44* by the hospital that took this. (no T angle given) but as L 60* by HSS and two other NYC surgeons. All said T30* too.

Many thanks for feedback!

[Back-out]

I think if you click on the image and then you click on the magnifying glass (zoom) icon upper right, you can enlarge them

[Susie*Bee]

Interesting to look at. Your kyphosis is a lot lower than I'd imagined. Mine (although in the early stages) was higher. As far as rotation goes, I don't know that much about it, but your ribs look spaced the same on both sides. I'm not sure if that's an indicator or not, but if you look at mine, they were spread apart on one side and close together on the other prior to my surgery, which I think indicates some degree of rotation too. Also, you're supposed to be able to tell by whether the pedicles are equidistant (they appear as two circles on each vertebrae) and the more they are off, the more rotated you are. If you have the David Wolpert book, there's a pic on p. 12 (2nd edition).

Hopefully someone else can help you with the rest.

[loves to skate]

I think if you click on the image and then you click on the magnifying glass (zoom) icon upper right, you can enlarge them

I clicked on the slide show icon and could see them fairly well, but not being a Doctor trained in reading x-rays, I can't tell you much. I could see some wedging of the vertebrae in your thoracic area, the kyphosis and the lack of lordosis in the lumbar. It is amazing how different everyone's x-rays look. I couldn't find a magnifying glass icon so I couldn't see a lot of detail. Did the Doctor sent you a report yet?
Take care, Sally

[Susie*Bee]

Sally-- what worked for me was that once I clicked on the link, the four x-rays were there. When you click on them, they enlarge and the magnifying glass icon comes up-- plus the directions for moving around to view the x-rays. You're right-- if you click on the slide show it doesn't seem to let you do anything.

[LindaRacine]

Have you actually been diagnosed with flatback? It doesn't look very flat to me.

--Linda

[loves to skate]

Thanks Susie,
I have been known to be blind reading computer screens before.

[rohrer01]

Hi, Amanda.
I looked at your pictures with my professionally untrained eye, . It looks to me as though you actually do have a fairly decent lumbar lordosis. This, however, is masked by how low your kyphosis is. So from the "outside" you look as though you have flatback, but on the inside you don't. It looks to me as though if they would straighten up that kyphosis when they fix the obvious lumbar curve, your "flatback" appearance might just go away. Just thinking about the geometry of how it looks. Have you asked any doctor's what they think?

[Back-out]

Hi, Amanda.
I looked at your pictures with my professionally untrained eye, . It looks to me as though you actually do have a fairly decent lumbar lordosis. This, however, is masked by how low your kyphosis is. So from the "outside" you look as though you have flatback, but on the inside you don't. It looks to me as though if they would straighten up that kyphosis when they fix the obvious lumbar curve, your "flatback" appearance might just go away. Just thinking about the geometry of how it looks. Have you asked any doctor's what they think?

Hey, rohrer,

Yes, I've been diagnosed with flatback.

Even before I had the kyphosis (I didn't always), I had pain on hyper-extension and no retroflexed pelvic tilt.

I hate to admit this, however funny it sounds, but a "friend" in boarding school nicknamed me "the assless wonder'. This referred to the anti-Jennifer Lopez effect. Gives me a reference point in time, though (age 16-7), That was a LONG time ago!

For as long as I can remember, I've had saggy bottom pants. Straight up and down lower lumbar including the pelvic girdle (sacrum down too).

Kind of confused at your and Linda's comments. A little like "erasing a pregnancy" and imaging the great figure the pregnant lady might have, I guess. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way with my spine.

However, I hope "they" will fix the lumbar kyphosis. Thus far it's sounding as if "they" hope it will unwind when the lumbar scoliosis is corrected. I sure hope so!

[LindaRacine]

Flatback is traditionally described as a loss of lumbar lordosis. Your lumbar lordosis looks fairly normal to me. As Rohrer said, your kyphosis is in your mid-back instead of your upper back. So you are hypo-kyphotic in the upper thoracic area and hyper-kyphotic in the lower thoracic area.