Living (Dealing) With Scoliosis

First Sign of Real Trouble

In 2001, I started having severe sciatica (burning pain shooting down my right leg).  The pain was so debilitating, I could barely lift my right foot to press the brake on my Harley.  Did I mention I still ride?  Right up until today I still ride a motorcycle.  A Harley of course.  (There are two kinds of motorcycles.  Harleys … and everything else.)
And did I mention I used to jump off the roof of our house as a child (9  or 10)? (repeatedly)  I’d bike over to the local Piggly Wiggly a few blocks away and collect cardboard boxes all day.  From this I’b build about a 4 foot high mound in the back yard.  Then I’d climb up on the roof and jump off into them.  Re-arrange the crushed boxes.  Rinse and repeat until there were no more boxes with any shock-absorbing quality.

You’d think my parents would have said something about this, wouldn’t you…

And climbing fir trees in the Northern California forest…  Did I mention that ?

Life is too uncertain to not do the things you love.  None of us know how much time we have left.  If you love something and doing it doesn’t hurt anyone else – my approach has been to Just Do It. Your Mileage May Vary

But I digress…  (again)

So I went to see a local chiropractor I knew.  When he brought in my full spine x-ray, slapped it on the viewer and flipped the switch, I broke out in a cold sweat.  It’s one thing to look at someone else’s x-ray of a twisted spine.  It is quite another thing altogether when it’s your own.
(this is from 2001.  It’s much worse now.)

Aren’t you glad this isn’t you?

This was pretty ugly.  Not only did I have a worsening case of scoliosis, but one vertebrae was rotated about 30 degrees and shifted, creating a pretty scary condition called stenosis.  This is where the space around your spinal cord is restricted, making it possible for your spinal cord to be rubbing against the bone.  As you might imagine, this is not good.

As a matter of fact, I have stenosis in 3 or 4 places along my spine for several reasons, not the least of which is Degenerative Disc Disease.  It’s not a lot of fun.  And it’s particularly painful.

Now I’m sure you’ve seen the ads for high-tech disc replacements, “minimally invasive surgery” and all kinds of greatly simplified spinal / disc repairs and are right now saying to yourself, but surely in 2012, there are really great ways of dealing with this problem, right?

Sounds good.  But NO.  Not when you have scoliosis.  And stop calling me Shirley.
<rimshot>
To simplify: With scoliosis pushing your spine in 3 different directions, the forces exerted on your spine make any disc replacement or minimally invasive approach out of the question.  Your spine has to be fairly straight to use these techniques.  I’ve got a list of people who are always alerting me to the newest “easy” way of fixing messed up spines.  They mean well, but it’s just never going to happen for people like me.  And there are plenty of people who are in much worse condition than I am.  People who are permanently bent over at a 90 degree angle.  People who are in wheelchairs.  Long-suffering individuals for whom there is simply no relief.  It could be a LOT worse.