The Dogs Days are Over

The demands of my life had been slowly chipping away at my commitment to my new treatment plan over the last 2 weeks. It had gone unnoticed until I crashed and burned this week when the reality of my commitment really sunk in, and the novelty of it wore off. I got so exhausted and weighed down by everything. I got so serious all of a sudden. Like most things after 2 weeks it starts to become a habit, but just as it does, the habit can get boring and if you let the reasons why, get in the way of yourself, you get stuck.

The anticipation of spending 2 weeks away on my treatment, the high of getting those great results, coming back and catching up with friends again, being so committed to a treatment that I knew was working and I needed to keep up - it all got too much. I scheduled too much, instead of scheduling my time properly and lost time for myself in the process.

Then I realised that I created this in the first place. And I wanted this and I chose to take my health on in a way I never had before. I didnt have to. I could go on and live my life with no impact to my social life and free time, without having to give up some of the things i loved to do like dancing and yoga - all for a short term comfort, yet to the detriment of my long term health. But that's not me either.

Then I got a message from a girl with scoliosis from the other side of the world, and she'd read my blog. And it helped her. Then my friend Kirsty in Australia emailed to tell me she had signed up for the marathon. And I was reminded of the support I have all around me. And I contacted a friend that is going through and same treatment as me. And I felt connected again to why I was doing this in the first place. And my week of dog days are over.

It Takes a Village

There's nothing better than having an amazing support system to keep you motivated and on track. And since I started this process and the more I've shared what's going on, the larger the support network has grown. And it's growing bigger than just being about me! This is what its really about. Inspiration lies somewhere in between realising this and taking action beyond your wildest dreams..

And I am so inspired and grateful for my friends and family who are there for me every step of the way. Rebel has gathered a group of friends and started a running team called 'The Running Backs' who are running in the LA marathon next March to raise money for my treatment! There are now eleven people running and three of which are flying over from Australia (including my dear friend Kirsty from high school)!

Rebel, Patty and Mo have created blogs to document their journey, training for the marathon and help raise money for my treatment over the next year:

- Rebel's blog is http://www.the-running-backs.blogspot.com/. Some of the money will also go towards creating a scholarship with the Clear Institute for a girl who is need of the two week intensive treatment or go towards purchasing a scoliosis traction chair.

Mo's blog is http://www.race2presence.blogspot.com/ and she is also raising money for me and for her Soccer charity.

Patty announced her blog last week and her goal is to raise $30,000 to cover my treatment. Patty's blog is http://www.gijanebootcamp.blogspot.com/.

I cannot thank everyone enough for their support which helps me get over myself when I feel frustrated, gets me up at 6 every morning and reminds me why I am doing this. You guys are the best and I love you all dearly and I offer my full support for anything you need for your marathon training. Just shout out and let me know x

My Target Spine

The xray on the right was taken front on, while I was sitting on the scoliosis traction chair you see here.

I sit on this chair twice a day for 30 minutes while it vibrates. The two straps are pulled tight by tightening the ratchetts on either side to pull my curves straight. The vibration causes the muscles of my spine to contract at a higher frequency than normal, accelerating healing. It's a daily reminder of how close I can get my spine to be straight and an awesome opportunity to catch up on some TV.

This is the goal for my spine, and during the next year, with exercises and constant use of the chair, it should start to hold in this position.

It's quite simple really. The more I use the chair, the more flexible my spine becomes, and the straighter my spine becomes while sitting on the chair. The more diligent I am with my exercises, the stronger my muscles get, to hold my spine into place when I'm out of the chair.

The muscles, bones and ligaments are working together. Every piece of the treatment needs to work together to reach the desired outcome.

I've realigned my back....now I'm realigning my environment

First day back home, back to work, and first day in 2 weeks without being adjusted. I feel little tingly sensations throughout my body like I'm being slightly reprogrammed.

It feels so much easier to stand up straight....and for the first time in my life I actually want to.

Now it's onto the next phase of the program - daily exercises and the use of the traction chair as well as visiting my LA chiropractor twice a week to maintain the results I received in Minnesota. My scoliosis traction chair arrives today!

I spent the first day realigning my environment to fit with my realigned spine...

- I created an exercise area in my apartment where I can keep my equipment and make it workabout with DVD player, music and a nice view.
- I changed my workspace at home to be 'erganomic' and bought a wireless mouse and keyboard so that I can sit properly at my desk.

After all, a healthy spine needs a healthy environment, and I can either have the reasons why this is not going to work or I can make it work. It's that simple.

I feel such a sense of power and I'm very inspired to keep up my treatment. It doesn't feel like something I 'have to do' anymore, I just do it. And I've shifted the way I relate to it from being a curse to a blessing. I can feel that this was meant for something - to help others who also have scoliosis and inspire a sense of community among people. And it seems to be doing that already.

There are almost 10 people running in the LA Marathon next March, and people travelling as far as Australia to join in the cause and raise money for my treatment. It would be my dream to raise enough money to also sponsor a young girl to receive the 2 week treatment.

~ Onward and upward....literally!

The results!....

Today I had a re-examination after my two weeks and got some AMAZING results (see xray)! This xray is looking straight at my back (if you were standing directly behind me taking a photo).

My top angle decreased from 34 to 15 degrees!
My lower angle decreased from 57 to 39 degrees!

I am soooo relieved that all the hard work is starting to pay off and this totally motivates me to keep going to get those angles down to close to 0.

My center of balance also improved (see % of weight proportion on this image).

What at great day. I am so inspired by the Clear Institute!

Scoliosis network....

I came up with a great idea to start a network of patients who have purchased the Scoliosis Traction Chair so that people can connect with others, and when they are traveling they dont have to take it with them. They can just contact a patient who participates in the network.

I'm hoping it gives alot of people more flexibility to go where they want, and not feel restricted by their treatment.

The doctor's here loved the idea and are going to take it to the Board next week!!

Getting some answers....

Today Dr Woggon taped the entire procedure including the adjustment and exercises to send to my chiroprator in LA. They really are dedicated to making sure they get it right.

I read an article written by him today about the spine as it grows and how important it is to maintain the natural curves of the neck in our daily activities and when we sleep. When we are in the womb we do not fully have those curves developed because we are not dealing with gravity. As soon as we are born, we need the curves to develop resistance against gravity and so the development of the proper spinal curves occur. I realised that crawling is an important part of the process and then remembered that I never did crawl which could mean I missed out on a vital part of the process of my spines development. The chiropractor mentioned that alot of scoliosis patients say they didn't crawl.

I also now realise just how important it is to get the right amount of sleep. When I went to bed last night I couldn't see the changes from yesterday until I woke up this morning. And now I realise its because during sleep, the nervous system has time to do what it needs to do to and it kicks in to do the healing that it doesnt have time to do when you are awake. This is when the cells regenerate and its why it is so important to get enough hours in (especially during the 2 week process). And twice as important to maintain the curves in the neck while doing so by sleeping on the back with proper neck and back support. Sleeping on the back is the most comforting to the nervous system.

i feel like I'm fitting together the pieces about how and why my spine is the way that it is, and I now feel like this is a gift, to learn more than I new before, wherever that takes me.

Week two

The most important part of the treatment of scoliosis is to restore the nature curves of the spine because scoliosis occurs when patients lose the natural curves in the neck and lower back. The spine has to compensate for losing those curves, so it curves sideways instead.

So alot of time is spent on different machines like the 'spinalator' that works the muscles up and down the spine, neck traction machines and using head weights to bring my head back into alignment. I had a great win today with a new Xray that showed that the curve in my neck corrected to the proper angle of 45 degrees with a head weight on...after using the head weight for 90 days it should remain in this position without the weight and cause positive changes down the length of my spine.

I'm actually noticing slight changes in my body everyday...my balance feels better, my hips seem more in alignment and strange things like sense of smell and hearing feel like they are improving.

My follow up and final exam will be friday...the day before I leave.

One week down....

Fourteen hours of exercises and twenty five hours of appointment time down. This week has gone surprisingly fast but I still can't believe I have one week to go.

A couple of good wins this week:
- the flexibility the doctors see in my spine is going to serve me well and its allowing them to push my spine where they want it to go
- follow up xrays show that I've already had a huge improvement in my curves at the top of my spine. The attached images shows that I had curves of 14 and 25 - they have now decreased to 4 and 8! A curve under 10 degrees is not considered to be scoliosis.
- when I sit in the traction chair it decrease my curves from 37 and 57 to 8 and 18 which shows that the chair is working and my spine is very flexible

more results to follow this week....

Two Weeks Intensive Scoliosis Treatment

I started treatment today at the center in St Cloud. I've never seen a practise that is entirely dedicated to Scoliosis. It makes me excited and uneasy at the same time. The first thing they did was take lots of tests - standard Xrays, digital motion xrays (me moving at the same time - totally weird!), height, muscle tests, balance tests, history of habits etc etc.

The verdict is on the photo attached - a 57 degree cobb angle to the right and 37 degrees back to the left. Apparently I'm a 'complex' case and the challenge seems exciting to them. I have a stress fracture from when I fell when I was younger and my left hip is 1.1 cm higher than the other when I sit, and 2.1 cms higher than the other when I stand (caused by the scoliosis curve).

I'm what's considered an 'opposite' because I curve the opposite way to most people (90% of cases curve to the left - I'm not sure why) and I'm an 'S' curve not a 'C' which is pretty obvious by the xray. Today was a big day and seeing all this right in front of me meant that I couldn't deny it anymore and it was going to take alot of commitment by me to make this work.

Dr Woggon who started the Clear Institute 10 years ago is the most knowledgeable person I have ever met when it comes to scoliosis. His other patients agree, and the results prove it. The hardest part is giving all my trust to someone I have hardly met.

Scoliosis Treatment Centers

I've been doing some searching on treatment centers who offer non surgical and non-bracing treatment for scoliosis patients using a variety of machines, chairs and adjustments on the patient to re-educate the muscles and ligaments to support the spine..

I made an appointment for an introductory session with the CLEAR institute. More information can be found at the link below:

http://www.clear-institute.org/

A month before I fould the Clear Institute I wished I could find a place that specialised in Scoliosis where the doctors could look at my body and customize treatment, exercises and a nutrition program just for me. No one else I had met seemed to be an expert in Scoliosis and it was frustrating to not be able to get answers that seemed to make sense to me.

So I found a Clear certified Chiropractor in Los Angeles and I learnt more about Scoliosis in one session that I had my entire life. For instance:

- Scoliosis is usually caused from a trauma at birth or an accident at a very early age.
- Scoliosis occurs when the patient loses the natural curves in the spine and the body has to compensate by creative a sideways curve
- restoring the curve in the neck is the first step in decreasing the scoliosis curve (and that it can actually be decreased)
- the nerves in the vertibrae are all connected to different organs in the body and where my curves are correlate to my symptoms of respritory and digestion problems and a weak immune system.

The treatments are 3 hours long and consist of a number of different machines. I am going to spend two weeks for intensive treatment (6 hours a day) at the Clear Institutes center in St Cloud Minnesota in the next couple of months.

Chiropractor & ART (Active Release Therapy)

I'd been seeing my chiropractor for about a year and decided it was time for him to actually measure the degree of my curve so I knew what I was dealing with. My cobb angle (the angle measured from where the bottom of the curve and the top of the curve meet) was at 52 degrees. Not great but not terrible. If I was a teenager I would probably be recommended for surgery, even as an adult most doctors in the western medical field would recommend this. But my parents thought it too harsh then and I think the same thing now. My chiro said that you never want to consider surgery and that it is possible that the curve will not get worse. This maintainance strategy is why I started to visit a chiropractor.

He recommended I try a heel lift although I'm still skeptical. What is it doing to do to my body to constantly be taking it in and out of my shoe?

He also suggested I added more swimming into my exercise routine. I went for the first time in months and paid conscious attention to my breathing, keeping my hips level and using my core to do this. It was so hard for me and I realised I hadnt been swimming with correct posture my entire life and it was probably making my posture worse. After a few weeks I could definitely feel an increase in my breathing capacity which is something that can be constricted when dealing with scoliosis.

ART - Active Release Therapy - the chiro also started ART when he noticed I had a very tight area (like neck or hip). It's used for extremely tight and stiff muscles that need to be released and usually completed after a chiropractic adjustment. The chiro applies pressure on the end of a muscle while the patient moves their neck or arm or leg to lengthen the muscle. I find that I sometimes get a very tight left butt and hip (because my longer left leg causes tention on this side) and this has helped to remove that pain. Using a foam roller also removes knots from the butt which is where we store alot of stress in our bodies.

Physical Therapy and Yoga Therapy

I attended a workshop with Sherry Brourman (http://sherrybrourman.com/) who specialises in yoga as therapy for different ailments and injuries and uses slight adjustments and props to train your body to think differently in the way you stand, breath, sit and utilmately do yoga. She also has a Physical Therapy background.

The first thing she said to me was that I had to come to terms with my curve first. It's been a long battle do to this but the more I actually do for my health with the intention of maintaining my curve rather than becoming absolutely straight, the more my overall health and wellness is improving and I'm feeling better about my body.

In the 2 hour workshop she focused on breathing and how with every inhalation and every exhalation you can 'turn on' your core and work your abs to support your spine and my hip/leg length differentiation: and how one subtle change and focus off my right leg can give me equal weight on both my hips rather than put the majority of weight on my right leg.

Experimenting with the Body - What's the Best Approach?

March was all about trying everything I know to look after myself. I am feeling fit and healthy but I don't feel like I am decreasing my curves....and I don't even know if that's possible at my age. I am just hoping to maintain my curves so they don't get worse.

What I have found is the more I look for answers to manage the progression of my curve the more people have come into my life to help me. I've started to network with organizations, yoga instructors, physio therapists, Alexander Technique instructors, nutritionists, chinese herbalists and trainers to put together the pieces and the best way to manage my scoliosis.

No one is giving me a simple answer to curing scoliosis except for surgeons. What I'm realising is that I have to take a quantum wellness approach - every little thing I do helps. Like most things its up to the individual to research and become 'an expert' in their condition and do what feels best for them. So I've started experimenting with other techniques to incorporate into my routine even when some want to discourage me from going down one path, and scare me into the other......

When you don't like modern medicines solutions, take 100% responsibility for your health

I have been very intrigued about the latest treatment options for scoliosis patients and so I attended a Scoliosis Foundation conference a few weeks ago. What I got was alot of information about scoliosis surgery and pain management options (through injections) available to scoliosis sufferers. The options they were presenting scared me so much that I sat crying through the entire presentation. It seemed so invasive yet so common in the states. I couldn't believe that this was the FIRST resort for many patients and pain sufferers.

So what I really got out of the conference was how I needed to step up my game and take control of my health....it was time to get serious about looking after myself. Not that I've been lazy and haven't been doing anything for the past 10 years: I've taken Yoga training and received my 200 hour certification, started a regular program at the chiropractor since 2008, gone to physio therapy classes for sore knees and hips (all results of my scoliosis), taken countless pilates, dance and other gym classes, become a regular swimmer and completely changed my eating habits to incorporate more raw fruits and veggies and did alot of reading on superfoods and supplements. But I know that there is so much more I can do, and if I really want to be feeling fit and flexible now and at 70 I had to find something else.

So for the month of March in my spare time I will concentrate souly on building a health program that I do regularly. I'm going to incorporate all the things above every week to rebuild my body: strengthen my core with pilates and weights (to hold up my spine), regular cardio through swimming (to increase my lung capacity which is often inhibited with the pressure of scoliosis), take Yoga regularly (for stretching and flexiblity of the back as well as balance training) and targeted physio exercises (that were designed for me when I came out of my brace 14 years ago).

I'll supplement this with the best foods and supplements I can find to nourish my bones and muscles in the process.

Looking after Scoliosis as an Adult

Ten years later at the age of 27, I started to notice the signs of aging on my spine with tightness, shallow breathing, constant colds and flu’s as well as overall tiredness. And so my journey began to treat my scoliosis as an adult and create a plan for living a healthy future by maintaining my scoliosis. I didn’t want it to stop me doing all the things I wanted to do in life - I have too many things to do here and I need to be fit and healthy to do them.

So I started to take responsibility for my own back health....which meant getting real about the current state of my back, understanding that I had scoliosis but that it wasn't who I was, and making a commitment to do everything I could to make a difference for me and in turn hopefully others.

My History with Scoliosis

In the early 90s, Scoliosis screenings in Australia occurred at the age of 12 in public schools. Unfortunately moving to a private school at that age caused me to miss the mandatory routine school screening and my scoliosis went unnoticed for another 3 years. I was not diagnosed until 15 when my mother took me shopping and noticed the difference in my leg length while trying on pants and could see that one of my hips was considerably higher than the other. She immediately took me to the doctor who referred me to a Specialist and diagnosed me with scoliosis. Scoliosis is diagnosed through xrays and the measurement of the angles of degrees the spine curves from one side to the other (if you are looking at the patient from the back). It is recognizable when one hip is higher than the other, a shoulder blade petrudes out and also causes one shoulder to be higher than the other. Forward head posture is also another sign of scoliosis.

I was put into a body cast for 3 weeks while my brace was being made. With the seriousness of my curve I wore the brace for 2 years until I stopped growing to try and avoid having my spine fused together. It was the scariest and most humiliating time of my life, a time when I was trying to be a teenager and fit in with everyone else.

Luckily bracing and physical therapy during those last few years of growth stopped the progression of the curve enough to satisfy surgeons and I avoided spinal fusion surgery. A procedure that is well known to not only cause limited mobility in the spine, but render many patients disabled from the inability to touch their toes. WIthin ten years it is likely the curve will revert to its former position.