i got the spinecor

[tbella]

hello all. i went to chicago yesterday and found out i was a good candidate for the spinecor. i got fitted for it and will now be wearing it as much as i can. the degree of my lumbar is now 39.5 xrays in the brace show it being 31. i can't believe it. i thought it would only go down a few degrees (3 or 4), but it is almost 10. i was very surprised. it is a bit of a contraption, but it feels good on. i feel like i am sitting up straight and it is way better than the boston brace i had as a teenager. i am pretty excited about it. if anyone has questions, i would be happy to answer (just keep in mind it is only my 2nd day with it!)

[gerbo]

interesting. I always have thought that spinecor could play a very supportive role in adults, and in doing so possibly slow down/ prevent deterioration in adult hood. Good to hear it is suiting you

[MATJESNIC]

tbella,

Good for you. Dr. Deutchman in New York told us about a woman who was a surgeon. She wore the Spinecor because it made her back feel better when she was performing surgery. If that's all that it can do, I would say it is worth it. Good luck.

[tbella]

just curious about what your daughter wears under her spinecor. i couldn't get the bodysuit, because the torso wasn't long enough. right now a short sleeve t-shirt is good under, but i am wondering if she gets any irritation from the thigh bands. (mine rub a little when walking) any tips you could give me would be great. thanks in advance!

[MATJESNIC]

You can actually order your own adult bodysuits from bodysuits.com in connecticut. Or you can go online and find another site that sells bodysuits for adults. My daughter likes the bodysuits from Spinecor.

[gerbo]

cycling shorts are good to prevent rubbing of thigh bands, lisanna wears nothing underneath top part , no need

[tbella]

thanks! i appreciate the tips!

[pat]

just curious about what your daughter wears under her spinecor. i couldn't get the bodysuit, because the torso wasn't long enough.

Bodysuit.com is great (no "s"); the majority of their bodysuits have snaps, they're great. Ask for Rita or Denise; very helpful. That's where we've been ordering all our bodysuits. p

[carolbills]

I have been wearing the brace for about 7 months. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I just turned 60 and had an S curve of 65/61. After my 6 month check-up my curve went to 57.4/54.4 without the brace on. Within two weeks of wearing it I no longer had hip, back or neck pain and my energy level increased dramatically. I had no idea how much of my energy went into just holding my back up.

So many doctors told me there was nothing they could do because I am an adult. Amazing how wrong they are.

[debigolebiwski]

I am 49 now. I talked with Dr. Deutschman on the phone. He comes to Atlanta, Georgia about every three months. He talked so positively about the brace until I just felt relieved that someone had something positive to say! I haven't got the money to go and get the brace yet, but if ever I can, that is exactly what I plan to do as well. Thanks for your encouraging words and thanks for letting us know that the brace worked for you. I am interested in hearing from anyone who has worn this Spinecor brace. Please let me know more about your experience. Oh, my curve measurements are 48-50/41.

[kardoid]

is the curve reduction permanent after a while? does it remove the rib hump.. I have lumbar scoliosis so my curve is in my low spine has anyone with lumbar scoliosis here used spinecore?

[LindaRacine]

is the curve reduction permanent after a while? does it remove the rib hump.. I have lumbar scoliosis so my curve is in my low spine has anyone with lumbar scoliosis here used spinecore?
Hi Ivan...

The reduction is almost certainly only temporary, for as long as the brace is worn. In adults with structural scoliosis curves, as braceguy implies above, just about any brace will temporarily reduce scoliosis curves. However, if/when the brace is discontinued, the curves will return. Here's a simple explanation of why that happens:

http://www.scoliosislinks.com/AlternativesDontWork.htm

Regards,
Linda

[debigolebiwski]

I read the article. That's what I figured to be the truth. Actually, I am not looking for correction at my age. I'm trying to prevent the inevitable. They say I will wake up unable to walk. I do at times but by afternoon, I'm back on my feet. My curves don't sound as bad but my vertebrae are touching on the iside of the curves.

[misspaula]

This might be a dumb question - but would a brace get the muscles and tendons on the concave side of the curve used to being stretched so that when surgery is done to straighten the spine, there would be less pain because the body would already be familiar with normal straighter posture?

[sewills]

Hi, I'm 53 and most of the time I don't have any back pain, but I do always have worn a very tight stretch camisole that makes my back feel better. How do I find out about this brace? Is there a website? Thanks, Sue

[carolbills]

Check out www.scoliosissystems.com. Changed my life. I am 60 and had a 60+ S curve. Was having lots of hip and neck pain and started to have spasms. I started wearing the brace and within two weeks my pain was gone, never had another spasm and my energy increased substantially. My curve has slowly reversed (10 months). I have spoken to a number of women in their 40-60 age range who have all had the same experience.

Good luck

[carolbills]

Hi Ivan...

The reduction is almost certainly only temporary, for as long as the brace is worn. In adults with structural scoliosis curves, as braceguy implies above, just about any brace will temporarily reduce scoliosis curves. However, if/when the brace is discontinued, the curves will return. Here's a simple explanation of why that happens:

http://www.scoliosislinks.com/AlternativesDontWork.htm

Regards,
Linda

Linda,
I think you do a great disservice by discouraging people from trying an alternative bracing system. It may be permanent and it may not. However, the change it makes while wearing it makes a huge difference. This is not an "off the rack" brace. It is fitted very specifically to each person and can only be beneficial. The fact that it can make the changes it does (relieving pain and spasms and increasing energy) indicates that it is a viable alternative. Scoliosis is traumatic to the system and any time a brace can make that much of a difference it is giving the body relief from that trauma.

People in the 40 and over age group need alternatives. What is the worst that can happen? We wear a brace a few hours a day and live pain free with more energy? Children avoid surgery for longer and don't have to wear the Boston brace that atrophies their muscles? My back is so much stronger without the brace. I have better balance in ballet and can do more things in pilates, all without the brace on.

Not all of us are ready to go under the knife and some of us are not candidates for surgery for many reasons. I believe as a moderator you have should be more impartial.

[MATJESNIC]

Carol,

where do you get your spinecor brace? Does Dr. Rivard know about your success? If not, you need to let him know.

[structural75]

Carol,

I think you're approach and outlook is fantastic and encouraging to others who refuse to resign themselves to the last resort. The brace is one of a few effective ways to resists the relentless force of gravity that contributes greatly to the progression of curves. It makes perfect sense to be utilizing the brace, the alternative is obvious... allow gravity to continue worsening the curvature and .... .! Besides, the so-called 'permanent' approach involving surgery often comes with consequences of it's own... so it doesn't seem as though it's the be all, end all for everyone. Why would you not want to do something that improves the quality of your life before taking more drastic measures???

On bony deformation... it is NOT the case that bone remains permanently in the shape of the curvature. Bony deformation can occur at any time in life, for better or worse. It simply happens much slower than it does during adolescents when endplate growth is active and fast. Our bones are constantly deforming/reforming according to the forces placed upon them... Osteoclasts are cells that breakdown bone where it is not needed according to these forces and osteoblasts replace them with new bone. This is what takes place to form bone spurs/osteophytes. You see this happening in the elderly population most dramatically as they often go from an easy upright posture in adulthood to a slumped kyphotic posture (humped back) as they age and become overcome by gravity's influence. You certainly can't make their spines remain upright at that point in time because of bony deformation, but it wasn't the case for them 10, 20, or 30 years prior. If it can change at that later stage in life then there is no valid reason why it couldn't (in some cases) change for the better when given the proper facilitation.

Be careful of overly simplistic explanations and assumptions... Keep up your efforts and at the very least, enjoy your more comfortable body!

Kindly,
structural

[carolbills]

Carol,

where do you get your spinecor brace? Does Dr. Rivard know about your success? If not, you need to let him know.

I get my brace through Dr. Deutchmann & Lamantia (www.scoliosissystems.com) in the U.S. They were treating a lot of adult scoliosis patients in their practice and were the first ones to see the value of the spinecor brace for adults.

Throughout the years every doctor told me how severe my curves were and that there was nothing that could be done because I was an adult. It is really a disgrace to the medical profession. I have talked to so many other women looking into the spinecor brace who had the same experiences. Doctors just dismiss us and say 1) can't do anything 2) our curves don't get worse after we stop growing. Hard to believe they still think that way. That is why I am so passionate in getting the word out that there is something that can be done.

Carol

[MATJESNIC]

Carol,

I am very happy for you. Have you spoken to Dr. Rivard yet? I know someone had come on here who was 18 and was told she couldn't be helped because she was at maturity.

[dsal]

Hello. I only post occasionally, as my Scoliosis curves are minor. I have a 19 degree thoracic curve, and my cervical curve is greater--but I don't remember what the degree is. (Kind of dumb, I know--but my chiro measured out the 19 degree one and wrote that on the Xray film.) Quite often I can ignore the Scoliosis since it's not very severe--that is until I get a flare-up of some sort. I wasn't dx'ed with Scoliosis until I was in my late 30's/early forties. (I'm 47.)

Most recently, my left shoulder has been acting up again, and I was feeling a pull from my neck across the top of my shoulder. In addition, I was feeling an occasional tingle in my hand. I regularly see a massage therapist (once every 3 weeks), even when things aren't acting up, and she worked on my muscles in the shoulder & upper back area. That definitely helped. I've been seeing my chiropractor 3x a week to work on this for the last few weeks. In addition, even though I'm not a major fan of exercise, I'm working on being more disciplined about it now. I'm back to doing Elise Miller's Yoga for Scoliosis (dvd) exercises. The good news is that the pulling feeling across my shoulder is gone now(!), however, the hand tingle thing is still going on. The chiro took Xrays and this is what he found:

He said that I have advanced-for-my-age (47) arthritis in the upper part of my spine, and at least one bone spur where two discs have fused themselves together.

The chiro thinks that something is pinching my median nerve. That's why I get the tingling in my fingers. (Thumb, index and a little in the middle finger.)

Anyways, I always feel like my body posture needs self-adjusting. It feels like I should bring my right shoulder forwards a bit and my left shoulder pushed back a bit. And I do feel that my upper verterbrae are crowded. If I turn my head towards the left, looking over my shoulder, I have an awful pain from the base of my skull to the shoulder. (It feels the way your finger feels if you try to push your finger up and back towards the upper part of your wrist; it's like you know it isn't meant to go into that position!)

I'm wondering if you think the SpineCor brace might help with this? Would it help to remind me to correct my posture? Do you think it might help to keep my median nerve from being entrapped? Is the SpineCor "overkill" for someone whose thoracic curve is only 19 degrees?

I know the SpineCor will not give me a perfect spine, and I'm not expecting that. However, I'm pretty sure that my cervical arthritis is not going to magically disappear, and I'm wondering if the brace would help me align more correctly, thereby allowing less unnecessary stress on the arthritic verterbrae?

Thank you for reading this lengthy post, and I will definitely appreciate any and all thoughts on this!

dsal

[mamamax]

I also got the spinecor brace (4/8/09 same providers as some here) and am experiencing excellent results.

Good to see your success Carolbills!!

And how are things today?