Scott,
First of all, I don't think anyone thinks you're lying about your measurements.
I often tend to defend Sharon's statements when I believe she's not being malicious. She's tamed down and I haven't seen her malicious with you. I get into trouble with some people when I try to interpret what I "think" she means when people take things the wrong way, in my mind at least. I don't believe she was being malicious at all with you. She found research papers that actually backed up what you were saying, being that you were using the same terminology as the researchers did in their papers. That's not malicious. That's showing you that other people/actual researchers HAVE already looked at things in the manner that you have described them. That's where your lack of understanding of the terminology comes in to play. It's not intended to make fun of you, but to show you that it's been done. People thought that Albert Einstein was an idiot and I'm pretty sure he didn't graduate, either. I'm sure he regretted developing the A-bomb, but that's not what he's remembered for. Sharon was, in my opinion, paying you a great compliment by finding researchers that had written papers on the terminologies that you were using. Being compared to a Ph.D., M.D. researcher as a 10th grade drop-out is no insult. She wasn't making fun of you if you look at it that way. If she's going to insult you, believe me she doesn't hide it one bit. Look at her and Flerc's conversations. She does not hide her dislike of his ideas.
Now in your mind you invisage something else that doesn't fit your former terminology. While the apology is appreciated. It is not necessary. Getting you to understand what it is you are saying and trying to explain is the important thing. No one needs to be right and no one needs to be wrong. There is no satisfaction in that. There IS satisfaction in helping someone narrow down their thoughts, learn to express them correctly, and seeing that a person is learning and benefitting from new knowledge, which you were humble enough to express.
Now I'm going to challenge you on your thought of seeing things in 3D and expressing them in planes. A plane is a 2D model, like a flat piece of glass, a wall, etc. you get the idea. 2D models are "usually" expressed on an (x,y) axis. So you can use formulas to describe shapes, or you can make "sheets" that go on for infinity. 3D models are expressed on an (x,y,z) axis. With this you can make three dimensional shapes, like spheres, pyramids, and even people! Now you can also make intersecting planes in the 3D model. You can make an infinite number of intersecting planes. In medicine, the four planes are the frontal plane (how you can make your side to side measurements - the degree of your Cobb angle), the sagittal plane (this gives you your side view or sagittal measurement), the transverse plane (like the "magic" trick of sawing someone in half as they lay in a box) and finally the oblique plane which takes a diagonal slice. You can most certainly describe these planes by making 2D descriptions for each plane on a 3D axis except the oblique plane. Here is a link to a picture of what I'm describing: http://o.quizlet.com/i/nJguMYh2jxDKklRi1GTNDQ_m.jpg (I hope it works.) In the case you are describing to me using planes, these planes should all intersect at the same spot which is a single point. So I don't quite follow your thinking since every point on your spine, scoliotic or not, will have its own unique set of planes, however many planes you want to use.
My hypothesis:
I honestly don't think you have AIS. If you did, your thoracic curve would have been present during adolescence. It may have been. I don't know and it sounds as if you don't know, either. I honestly think that your 12o lumbar curve came from your LLD. It could have been corrected simply with a shoe lift. After time as we age, our bodies will tend to straighten themselves out. This means you develop another curve to compensate for the original curve. It sounds from your description that the lumbar curve was there first, making it the primary curve. You can have a compensatory curve become structural after time. It happened to me. The only way to find out if either of your curves are really structural is to have bending x-rays to see if you can bend them out. If you can bend them out then they would be, as Sharon called them, functional curves. This doesn't mean that you don't have scoliosis. It does mean that you would be more likely than most of us to respond to physical therapy based treatments. I would start by asking your doctor about orthotics (a shoe lift) to address your LLD. Then PT based therapies. I believe that you indeed DID hurt your back at work. Again, my thoughts, I'm not a doctor. When you hurt your back it caused acute muscle spasms. Then, from lack of taking care of yourself (at your own admission - sitting hunched over for hours of video game enjoyment), you developed chronic muscle spasms that have pulled your spine out of whack. Now whether it has become structural or not is up to you and your doctor to find out. S/he may not be willing to do bending x-rays because of the cost of extra x-rays and the fact that your scoliosis is mild. In my opinion it's best to find out when it is mild so you can get appropriate treatment before it progresses. This may be why you don't fit any particular model. I don't think your accident "caused" your scoliosis. I think it exacerbated what was there and you didn't follow through in taking care of your back. Because of this and your age (I know you're still young) you may be developing degenerative scoliosis. My ex had degenerative scoliosis from undiagnosed DDD at the age of 34. It was enough to classify him as "disabled" due to pain. He did not have scoliosis that we knew of prior to a work injury where he pulled his back muscles which set off a chain of events that made his discs worse and induced chronic muscle spasms and pain.
Looking at your coronal x-ray (thank you for sharing), I can immediately see the lumbar curve. I had to look a little harder to see the thoracic curve even though it measures larger. On your external standing image of your back I could also see a little lumbar curve despite your shorts being uneven (I was looking at your hip bones). Looking at your sagittal x-ray I can see that your shoulders are rolled forward and you seem to have a bit of a larger kyphosis. It doesn't appear this way on your external pictures. Did you slouch for your x-ray? If not, it just may be hidden externally by the way you stand. You seem to be quite muscular through your shoulders and upper back and not so much through your torso and lower back.
My advice to you is to work on your posture and exercise those core muscles. We should all be doing that whether we have scoliosis or not. If nothing else, it may save you a lot of lower back pain in the future. If you already have lower back pain, it will help (from experience). And finally, be THANKFUL that it isn't worse and try to keep it that way.
If it makes you feel any better, my original scoliosis never fit a pattern either AND I developed it early on in life. Now, at my age, it has become degenerative scoliosis and will continue to progress per my neurosurgeon that I saw back in May.
Best wishes,
Rohrer01
First of all, I don't think anyone thinks you're lying about your measurements.
I often tend to defend Sharon's statements when I believe she's not being malicious. She's tamed down and I haven't seen her malicious with you. I get into trouble with some people when I try to interpret what I "think" she means when people take things the wrong way, in my mind at least. I don't believe she was being malicious at all with you. She found research papers that actually backed up what you were saying, being that you were using the same terminology as the researchers did in their papers. That's not malicious. That's showing you that other people/actual researchers HAVE already looked at things in the manner that you have described them. That's where your lack of understanding of the terminology comes in to play. It's not intended to make fun of you, but to show you that it's been done. People thought that Albert Einstein was an idiot and I'm pretty sure he didn't graduate, either. I'm sure he regretted developing the A-bomb, but that's not what he's remembered for. Sharon was, in my opinion, paying you a great compliment by finding researchers that had written papers on the terminologies that you were using. Being compared to a Ph.D., M.D. researcher as a 10th grade drop-out is no insult. She wasn't making fun of you if you look at it that way. If she's going to insult you, believe me she doesn't hide it one bit. Look at her and Flerc's conversations. She does not hide her dislike of his ideas.
Now in your mind you invisage something else that doesn't fit your former terminology. While the apology is appreciated. It is not necessary. Getting you to understand what it is you are saying and trying to explain is the important thing. No one needs to be right and no one needs to be wrong. There is no satisfaction in that. There IS satisfaction in helping someone narrow down their thoughts, learn to express them correctly, and seeing that a person is learning and benefitting from new knowledge, which you were humble enough to express.
Now I'm going to challenge you on your thought of seeing things in 3D and expressing them in planes. A plane is a 2D model, like a flat piece of glass, a wall, etc. you get the idea. 2D models are "usually" expressed on an (x,y) axis. So you can use formulas to describe shapes, or you can make "sheets" that go on for infinity. 3D models are expressed on an (x,y,z) axis. With this you can make three dimensional shapes, like spheres, pyramids, and even people! Now you can also make intersecting planes in the 3D model. You can make an infinite number of intersecting planes. In medicine, the four planes are the frontal plane (how you can make your side to side measurements - the degree of your Cobb angle), the sagittal plane (this gives you your side view or sagittal measurement), the transverse plane (like the "magic" trick of sawing someone in half as they lay in a box) and finally the oblique plane which takes a diagonal slice. You can most certainly describe these planes by making 2D descriptions for each plane on a 3D axis except the oblique plane. Here is a link to a picture of what I'm describing: http://o.quizlet.com/i/nJguMYh2jxDKklRi1GTNDQ_m.jpg (I hope it works.) In the case you are describing to me using planes, these planes should all intersect at the same spot which is a single point. So I don't quite follow your thinking since every point on your spine, scoliotic or not, will have its own unique set of planes, however many planes you want to use.
My hypothesis:
I honestly don't think you have AIS. If you did, your thoracic curve would have been present during adolescence. It may have been. I don't know and it sounds as if you don't know, either. I honestly think that your 12o lumbar curve came from your LLD. It could have been corrected simply with a shoe lift. After time as we age, our bodies will tend to straighten themselves out. This means you develop another curve to compensate for the original curve. It sounds from your description that the lumbar curve was there first, making it the primary curve. You can have a compensatory curve become structural after time. It happened to me. The only way to find out if either of your curves are really structural is to have bending x-rays to see if you can bend them out. If you can bend them out then they would be, as Sharon called them, functional curves. This doesn't mean that you don't have scoliosis. It does mean that you would be more likely than most of us to respond to physical therapy based treatments. I would start by asking your doctor about orthotics (a shoe lift) to address your LLD. Then PT based therapies. I believe that you indeed DID hurt your back at work. Again, my thoughts, I'm not a doctor. When you hurt your back it caused acute muscle spasms. Then, from lack of taking care of yourself (at your own admission - sitting hunched over for hours of video game enjoyment), you developed chronic muscle spasms that have pulled your spine out of whack. Now whether it has become structural or not is up to you and your doctor to find out. S/he may not be willing to do bending x-rays because of the cost of extra x-rays and the fact that your scoliosis is mild. In my opinion it's best to find out when it is mild so you can get appropriate treatment before it progresses. This may be why you don't fit any particular model. I don't think your accident "caused" your scoliosis. I think it exacerbated what was there and you didn't follow through in taking care of your back. Because of this and your age (I know you're still young) you may be developing degenerative scoliosis. My ex had degenerative scoliosis from undiagnosed DDD at the age of 34. It was enough to classify him as "disabled" due to pain. He did not have scoliosis that we knew of prior to a work injury where he pulled his back muscles which set off a chain of events that made his discs worse and induced chronic muscle spasms and pain.
Looking at your coronal x-ray (thank you for sharing), I can immediately see the lumbar curve. I had to look a little harder to see the thoracic curve even though it measures larger. On your external standing image of your back I could also see a little lumbar curve despite your shorts being uneven (I was looking at your hip bones). Looking at your sagittal x-ray I can see that your shoulders are rolled forward and you seem to have a bit of a larger kyphosis. It doesn't appear this way on your external pictures. Did you slouch for your x-ray? If not, it just may be hidden externally by the way you stand. You seem to be quite muscular through your shoulders and upper back and not so much through your torso and lower back.
My advice to you is to work on your posture and exercise those core muscles. We should all be doing that whether we have scoliosis or not. If nothing else, it may save you a lot of lower back pain in the future. If you already have lower back pain, it will help (from experience). And finally, be THANKFUL that it isn't worse and try to keep it that way.
If it makes you feel any better, my original scoliosis never fit a pattern either AND I developed it early on in life. Now, at my age, it has become degenerative scoliosis and will continue to progress per my neurosurgeon that I saw back in May.
Best wishes,
Rohrer01
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