Worried about scoliosis

[nok]

Hi all, I have been browsing these forums for awhile, and I have seen many helpful people here, so I have decided to join in. I will proceed to explain my current situation with my scoliosis, and any kind of comment, advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

I was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 15 (12 degrees on the lower spine, C-shaped curve bending towards the left). At that point the doctor I was speaking to advised us not to do anything yet. 6 months later, the curve had worsened to 25 degrees and I was given a brace. I hated the brace and wore it only at night when I went to bed, which meant about 8 hours a day in the brace at most. 6 months later my curve had reduced to 18 degrees (whether this was due to the brace or an error in the x-ray im not sure - different doctors have given different opinions). Anyway, I continues with this wearing of my brace and I continued checking my curve every 6 months. The progression of my curve is as follows: 18 - 25 - 28 - 34 - 38. I am now 19 years old. Due to my studies and other activities these past few years I have been wearing my brace less and less (averaging about 6 hours a day). Now that my curve has gone to 38 degrees and there is a very obvious deformity at my hips, I am getting worried. The current doctor I am seeing claims that a brace is useless and asks me to just wait and see. If it continues to progress and hits 50, he recommends surgery. Meanwhile, he suggests I do lots of swimming and stretching exercises (as a little side-track, does anyone know or have previous experience regarding how effective these exercises such as swimming are?) So I have now stopped wearing my brace (I am not sure if thats a good idea or not though) and I am trying to swim as much as possible. I would like to avoid surgery if possible as I do not really like the idea of having two steel rods inserted into my back, and I have noticed that many of the older forumers here tend to get problems such as back pain even after having surgery. I am willing to live with this 38 degee curve as well as the hip deformity it brings (although I wouldn't complain if it got better!), but I am afraid that it will continue to get worse.

As I said earlier, any kind of advice, comment or help would be nice. Thanks for your time.. sorry for the long post. haha!

[Mom37]

Swimming

My daughter was officially diagnosed with scoliosis 10 weeks ago. She was advised by an orthopedic to be braced. I have put my 12 year old daughter back in swimming on a team after 3 years she took off to do 3 years on a dance team. Although dance is great excercise too, we are going back to swimming. We were considering it before we found out about her scoliosis about 2 months ago, and that helped make our decision. My husband and I feel that swimming would be one of the best exercises. People with injuries or healing from surgeries are many times referrred to physical therapy involving water activity. My understanding is that water activity, for example, water aerobics, takes the stress off the joints. She has been in a flexible, Spinecor brace for one month now. She wears it daily 20-23 hours. She can do almost anything except swim and shower in it. In one month her curve went down from out of brace of 38 to in brace of 28. She has to wear it a minimum of 18 months. My daughter is easing her way back in swimming and did 2 hours the first week, 3 the next and 4 the next and by one month will be swimming 5 hours a week. She will swim 5 hours a week, one hours 5 days a week Monday through Friday. It will count as off campus P.E. in Junior High in the Fall, so she will get to take an extra elective of Art. Every doctor we talked to recommend exercise and are really encouraging swimming the most.

[Ukman]

If you've stopped growing a brace won't be any use. I think that in your situation wait and see is the only option. You could also consider getting a second opinion at some point in the future if you are faced with the prospect of surgery.

[MATJESNIC]

Don't forget about ballet. That is excellent for scoliosis. Nicole dances about 12 hours a week which includes 3 hours of ballet. She does all of this in her brace and she does her corrective movement.
I'm wondering if all of that movement in her spinecor could have caused her straps to wear out so soon.
Any opinions?

Melissa

[nok]

Operate early?

I just had a long discussion with my mum today, and she suggested that maybe instead of waiting, since currently there is a chance of me having to do the operation, I might as well do it now, while my curve is still small and I will have better correction instead of waiting till it hits 50 and then doing the operation. Now I am notsure if I should do the operation early, or wait to see if it gets worse.

[LindaRacine]

Nok...

What you should do is follow your doctor's advice and stop wearing the brace. At 19, unless you're really unusual, the brace is of no benefit. After you've been out of the brace for 6-12 months, your curve should be remeasured.

There is a good chance that you'll never need surgery, so please don't rush into it. At 19, your curve is probably very flexible, and should remain that way for many years. Having surgery at 20, 25, or even 30 will not be very different than having it at 19, and a good surgeon would probably get about the same result, regardless of your age.

Regards,
Linda

[nok]

I see. I thought the worse your curve is the less correction can be obtained from surgery. Is that incorrect? Also I am not attempting to tain an extended medical leave from work so i can swim intensively every day. Hopefully it will help. I will settle for any kind of improvement, as I really want to try to avoid the srugery.

[LindaRacine]

Hi Nok...

That may be true to some extent. A 100 degree curve probably isn't going to get as much correction as a 50 degree curve. However, your curve is small enough that it probably doesn't make any difference.

Regards,
Linda