Happy New Year - 2014!

A bit late now I guess but Happy New Year! 

I wanted to write a bit of an update on me and how my back is doing now I'm 3 1/2 years post op. 

Flexibility wise my back is the best it's been since surgery and bending to pick things up off the floor, rolling over in bed and things like that no longer seem to be an issue for me, which if you'd told me that at around 3 months post op I'd never have believed you! It seems that I can now bend quite normally and I notice my metalwork less and less now despite being fused to L3, which is encouraging. 

The only annoyance for me now is my shoulder, which I still get quite a bit of pain and discomfort in, partly because I have a winged scapula and the shoulder blade is not in the correct place. I'm not sure if this is down to my residual thoracic curve or as a side effect of the surgery or a bit of both. I went to the doctor mid last year about pain in my shoulder and lower back (which is not as bad, only if I'm on my feet alot) and she prescribed me Naproxen and referred me to the physio again. 

I started taking the Naproxen for a while but found it didn't really do anything so, for now, I don't take any painkillers as 1. I don't like taking them and 2. I haven't really found a painkiller that does the job and doesn't have any horrible side effects. 

The physio I saw late last year was quite useful, she basically said the reason I get pain in my back and after I've been to the gym for example, is that as I have the metalwork in there, my muscles have essentially become "lazy" and some of them aren't working as they should as they rely on the metalwork to do the work for them. So if I go to the gym for example, I end up using more muscles than I should do to over compensate for the ones that are being a bit lazy, which gives me more pain and achyness the next day.  I suppose it makes sense and I never thought of it like that. She showed me some simple exercises to do to "activate" some of my muscles again which I found very useful, although I must admit I didn't have the time to do them as religiously as I should have done.

As it was an NHS phsyio, they can only see me for 6 weeks at a time and then discharge me even although I'll never be "cured." I think this time it was worthwhile going though, although no doubt I'll be back again at some point! I think there should be a different system for people with long term conditions, as we need really need long term physio and support rather than continuously having to go back, see a new physio each time and be discharged again.

She did recommend a pilates DVD for people with long term back pain, so my plan now is to try that and see how I get on. It's so hard to know what the best exercises are when you have spinal fusion as you want to keep your muscles strong but you don't want to do damage or make any pain you have any worse.  I wanted to start going to the pilates classes at my gym but I just know I won't be able to do half of the moves and will just end up feeling embarrased.

Anyway, I'll update how I get on with the DVD, hopefully it will be of benefit to me!

Pain days

I don't like to post about pain too much as I don't want to put people off having this surgery, as I know that in many severe cases like mine, surgery is unavoidable.

However, this is an honest blog about life after scoliosis surgery and if you need to have this surgery you will be interested in what it's really like living your life after this type of surgery.

Today has been a bad pain day. Actually the past few days have.

Honestly, I don't get as many pain days now as I used to, in fact, I can now go months without taking my painkillers. Considering how many painkillers I took in the year following my surgery, I think this is incredible.

I believe alot of this is down to my exercising and keeping my core as strong as possible as I've worked really hard to get my strength back since surgery.

My pain days generally don't stop me from doing anything. I just keep calm, take a codeine and carry on!  But these pain days do make me stop and remember that I have had major surgery on my spine, it's so easy to forget sometimes.

I've been trying to work out recently what causes my pain days. Am I doing too much by going to the gym frequently and working full time? Should I rest more? I just don't know.  These are the questions I will ask my consultant when I see him next month.

I think though, that I've worked out a few 'triggers' of my post-surgery pain over the past few months:

• Stress I've been under alot of stress over the past couple of weeks and I think this is causing my back pain to flare up now. Maybe it's the muscles tensing up I don't know but it seems to be worse when I get stressed.

• Cold Weather Now the summer has come to an end (I know, I know, what summer right?) I can feel the cold working my way into my back and making it tense up more.
• Uncomfortable chairs I still need to get myself a decent cushion!! But most chairs are uncomfortable and will cause my back pain to flare up if I sit on them too long.
• Time of the month (ladies!) for some reason my back pain gets alot worse during this time, which is odd as this never happened before surgery!
• Being on my feet too long although I know this is also a problem for people who don't even have a back condition and it's usually relieved once I sit/lie down.

I would be interested to hear from other people who have had the surgery, what do you think causes your pain and how do you tend to cope?

Does scoliosis surgery get rid of pain?

I get asked this alot and the answer, for me, is yes and no.

People don't seem to understand why I am still in pain after I've had the surgery, I think they think that as my surgery was nearly two years ago now that I should be 'recovered' and back to normal now - whatever that is.

The truth is that before my surgery my pain was much, much worse and I was soooo much more uncomfortable.

I had two curves 80+ and all the pressure these put on my muscles gave me terrible muscle spasms/knots. Nothing would get rid of them, I had massages every few weeks, tried accupuncture, physio, heat therapy, pilates, swimming etc etc. It just felt like a constant intense pressure - kind of like my spine was about to snap. I also found it hard to sit unsupported e.g like a bench/stool as I'd get pain/pins and needles in my back. Plus I was always so uncomfortable on pretty much EVERY chair going due to my rib hump.

As soon as I woke up from surgery I knew straight away that the pain I had before surgery was completely gone, and I can't begin to tell you what a relief that was after years and years of it. My muscle knots went overnight.

My back felt supported for the first time, like I had an internal brace and I could sit unsupported comfortably for the first time, it was so amazing.

I was told by my surgeon that this surgery is not guaranteed to get rid of pain and that I could end up with a different type of pain post surgery and he was right. I didn't have the surgery to get rid of my pain but to stop further progression of my curves so this didn't really bother me.

The pain I get now post surgery is mostly lower back pain that I get after a long day at work/being on my feet for a while and is relieved instantly by lying down. 

I guess this is due to pressure on the unfused discs in my spine as they have to take the pressure that my whole spine used to take now that it's fused. I'm currently trying to strengthen my core muscles at the gym to try and take the pressure off and I have noticed a difference since starting my exercising I must say.

The main problem I have now is trouble getting comfortable. I'm constantly uncomfortable and I think this is because of the rods in my back my posture is constantly 'straight' so I cannot bend my back to mould it to chairs such as sofas as others would do. 

If I'm sat straight upright I'm usually comfortable but the problem is that most chairs don't allow you to sit straight very easily so I'm always hogging all the cushions in the house in a desperate bid to get myself sat in a 'straight' position!

So if anyone knows any good cushions that may help with support for my back please let me know...

It's Snow Joke...

There are heavy snow warnings across the UK at the moment, below freezing temperatures and lots of ice. We've had a bit of snow where I live although what concerns me more are the slippy pavements - especially when they're not gritted.

I know a lot of people get excited by the snow, it looks so pretty blah blah blah.

I personally HATE the snow and dread winter every year because the cold weather does just not agree with my back. For me it feels dangerous and the cold just causes me extra pain.

Ever since I had the rods put in the cold seems to find it's way into my metalwork and my back muscles just stiffen up like a tight corset, making it difficult to walk very fast and making my pain a lot worse than usual. 

I'm also very nervous about walking on the ice since my surgery as I'm terrified of slipping over and doing damage to my fusion, damaging the metalwork and causing myself more pain. 

I know I'm stronger than I think, but I feel like a frail old lady out there on the ice, people don't realise how bad a fall could be for me though because I'm young and look "normal."


Also, I tend to tense up more when I walk on the ice now as I'm so scared of slipping, which makes it 10x worse!

It was worse last winter as I was only 6 months out of surgery and I knew that I wouldn't be fully fused yet so a bad fall could have caused serious damage.

I think I will be like this now every winter, I just dread it and wish it never snowed. Well, so long as I don't have to go out in it.

I really think I need to live somewhere hot and sunny...or get some of these, safety first!

Ice Grippers:

Memory Foam = Bliss!!

I remember the day I discovered memory foam. 

It was before my scoliosis surgery and I was looking for anything to help with my pain. I bought a memory foam mattress topper and I can honestly say that it was the best thing I ever did. After sleeping on memory foam I remember waking up for the first time without pain and stiffness, it was amazing and in my opinion, well worth the money.

At the time they were about £90 for a single topper but they've come down in price considerably now and are widely available. 

Now I can't sleep comfortably without my memory foam topper, I usually wake up in pain if I go on holiday and have to sleep on a hard bed. I usually can't wait to get back to my own bed and my memory foam! It's like bliss when I lie down on it after a long day.


If you suffer with back pain from scoliosis memory foam is well worth a try, it's really helped me and has truly been a life saver since my surgery.


I am not sure what the best memory foam mattresses are but I bought mine from Dunelm Mill.

There are also many available on Amazon at good prices and
Memory Foam Warehouse have a huge choice of memory foam mattresses and toppers.


There is also a good blog article here on memory foam mattresses and scoliosis.

I know everyone has different preferences when it comes to mattresses and I won't say that memory foam will get rid of all your pain but it has helped me. 

I really just want to share things that help my pain and keep me comfortable with others suffering with the same condition :)




Louise xx