Scoliosis - Introduce yourself and meet others

I was born with a number of health issues, including scoliosis, hip dysplasia, deformed left leg, and hole in my heart. I have functioned quite well but the last two years have much more pain ftom hips and back. I turned 60 this summer. I have weekly massage and physio, as well as chiropractor treatments every two or three weeks.

Oh dear it's rotten getting older!
You sound like you have the right attitude towards keeping yourself in the hands of the experts....I haven't any magic answer but keep talking to us as it always helps to talk to people that suffer themselves and understand......Beryl

Hi, I am Polly. I am 55 and have been dealing with scoliosis for the past 6 years, although my doc feels I have probably had it since I was a child. I have a severe S curve in the lumbar spine along with a twist at the L3-4 junction. In addition, I have arthritis throughout, disc degeneration and bulging discs at all lumbar levels. Previous to my career as a teacher, I worked as an active electrician in construction for many years. I have thus far avoided surgery by doing PT and staying as active as possible. I have done back injections but they help very little and my doctor is starting to push me to consider surgery since my pain levels have begun to increase. My biggest issue is I work FT and am a caregiver to my husband who has stage 4 cancer. It is really not a viable option for me at this time to have the time to take off for a long recovery. I have done a little research that perhaps yoga would help. I thought perhaps if someone knows a good video on yoga that would be safe for me to do without damaging my back further and would allow me to do it at home. I work about 50-60 hours/week and need to be home with my husband the rest of the time. Any thoughts?

Hi Polly-
I too have scoliosis.i was diagnosed in 2006 and today I’m 66. I’ve had 2 lumbar surgeries & returned to work in 6 weeks post surgery. It was difficult. I was told yoga was not a good choice but Pilates is. Lots of stretching. It helps me.
I wish you & your husband the best.

Hi Polly,
I am 61 and have had scoliosis since I was 16. What works for me is Taoist Tai Chi, which I have bee doing regularly for 10 years. I am now virtually pain free.

Tai Chi!

Hello @spinalstenosis @jax0673 @pennylg @polly38 and @palgravecharlie,

I'm delighted to welcome you all to Connect. For a start, I'm tagging Mentor @gailb who recently wrote about Hatha Yoga in the Chronic Pain group; you can view her post here:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/welcome-please-introduce-yourself-welcome-to-the-new-chronic-pain-group-im/
I also found a recently published study that might interest you; the study discusses the benefits of practicing Tai Chi as therapy for many chronic pain conditions, including severe scoliosis: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4850460/

I was wondering if anybody had some thoughts on other complimentary therapies, such as acupuncture, for scoliosis?

I want to say thank you to those of those giving input on Scoliosis. I asked a specialist about suggestions and was discharged as at my age (67) there is nothing can be done. I have not posted here as I know so very little myself. I do some Tai Chi, some Yoga. I have tried to find some type of support group or groups teaching what I mentioned. I also have fibromyalgia and do share there at times.
I have become discouraged trying to motivate myself and the feeling of not going any where other than further into pain...not meaning to sound pathetic.

Parus your not pathetic we all feel like we are the on ly ones having this pain it is hard to find a sympathetic ear sometimes but we are here for you to vent . Scoliosis is hard for older people All you can do is keep trying to be the best person you can be We all love your pictures you paint .Just keep on ,keeping on thats all we can do What did St Francis say change what you can,accept what you cant and know the difference I think accepting is the difficult to do .

Netta, 76 yrs of age. Scoliosis diagnosed at 60yrs of age. Since the diagnosis, Pilates 1 or 2x’s wk has been very helpful. So far, no pain meds except naproxen. Hoping I can keep surgery at bay for my life time.