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Scoliosis - Introduce yourself and meet others
Spine Health | Last Active: Jul 20, 2023 | Replies (433)Comment receiving replies
I had surgery in 2005 with Dr. Dudley at Mayo and he has since retired. I now see Dr. Yazemski and he has amazing credentials and a caring personality. My situation needs a full fusion and the chance of increased mobility and decreased pain is low, so I am trying Rolfing, Structural Body Integration, Acupuncture, Physical Therapy, etc to reduce my pain levels. I use a small electric scooter, a Luggie, as walking any distance is almost impossible due to pain.
Replies to "I had surgery in 2005 with Dr. Dudley at Mayo and he has since retired. I..."
Hi, Gailb! Thank you so much for your encouragement and for sharing your experience with me. I have looked into ART before and it seems to be very similar to Rolfing, also called Structural Body Integration - both of which have been extremely helpful for me. The sessions are often very painful and the next day, I have wondered why I was doing that to my body! However, a second day after, I could really feel a positive difference. It was very worth it and I continue to do those stretching exercises at home too. Thanks again fr sharing your story! Best wishes! Vickie
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@vickiekay
Hi Vickiekay, I'm a Volunteer Mentor with Mayo Connect. As such, I'm not a medical professional so I can offer you my experience, but not medical advice or diagnoses. You seem to have back problems similar to mine. In December 2016, I had a laminectomy on my L5-S1 to relieve the acute pain from my disk impinging on my nerve. It was very successful and I have no more pain on my left side of my hip, leg, and foot.
However, I have an L4 herniated disk that will require major surgery with rods and pins. I have had tremendous pain on my right side, similar to what I'd previously had on the left. My surgeon recommended that I seek alternative treatments for my L4 pain before going to surgery and fusion. I was taking 3 pain medications at the time, Tramadol, Baclofen, and Gabapentin. I read on Mayo Connect about a technique called Active Release Technique (ART), and decided to try it since acupuncture, PT, and massage weren't helping. I researched about ART on Google and decided to find a practitioner to do treatments. I live in Southern California and just about every kind of therapy is here, so I quickly found a chiropractor who does the technique.
Dr. Todd Andrews did 6 sessions with me at first, over a 3 week time. I was amazed that after the initial sessions I could walk and climb stairs with very little pain. It has been nearly a year now and I continue to go to him for a monthly "tweek". I am pain free right now, and can do pretty much whatever I want physically. I am so happy I found out about ART and l highly recommend it. Basically, it works by releasing nerves and muscles that have gotten bound together as a result of some kind of trauma. The doctor gives me very deep muscle massage at a pain area, at the same time he and I are moving the limb involved. It has worked for me and I have no more pain medications, other than occasional Tylenol or CBD oil or THC/CBD oil. I am so happy to be off the medications. Best of luck with finding relief for your back pain. I also have scoliosis, DDD, cervical radiculopathy, and a C7 compression fracture. All pain is pretty much gone from these problems.
Gailb
Volunteer Mentor