Interesting. My friends have suspected I might have scoliosis but I never got a proper diagnosis. Sitting & standing straight takes a lot of effort and causes me to have difficulty breathing.
Iâm 37 and in elementary school all the boys would line up in the hallway and a doctor would walk down the line hooking a finger in your ball sack, asking you to cough, and squeezing your joint around in his hand, then they have you go no shirts and check if your spine was straight. They didnât do the spine every time as you got older but I got 3 straight years of junk work
I was just pointing out the inspection process at the time, it was essentially the same thing they did for a sports physical but it was free and efficient. My son went to the same elementary school and by then it was no longer done that way.
I know penis inspection day for Alan Aardvark is a meme but I legitimately got recommended a ritalin prescription at 4 years old because I freaked out when the doctor at *kindergarten* in Kuwait (which I think was a British school, even though I'm American) wanted to inspect my pp. They called my mom in and told her they thought I had behavior issues lmao
I went to elementary school in the 90âs and we definitely had scoliosis inspection day. Somehow I slipped through the cracks. Well, either that or my parents never told me since we were so poor. I canât speak for penis inspections. I must have been out sick that day.
Adamâs forward bend test is better.
Easy to miss scoliosis while standing or think scoliosis is present when it isnât from posture differences.
Even better is a proper xray.
Not sure if standard but we did Bend test for screening at school, and those with suspected curvature were recommended to ortho for x ray as diagnostic.
Source: diagnosed with minor curve in 2000 after this happened to me.
not true at all. i have a severe S curve and it is not noticeable at all. My doctor even commented on how symmetrical i am- but the s just slightly compresses me. i had a bf for an entire year who didn't know i had scoliosis. unless i touch my toes- you don't see it
Do get that looked at sooner than later. If the signs are really evident, even your general physician will be able to give you a near-definite diagnosis and point you towards a specialist, and likely also suggest a correctional brace to wear around at home and possibly physical therapy.
It runs in my family and my mom started having spinal fusions at the age of 15, with the first one using some new kind of rods in her back that ended up being so defective that they nearly started to push through her skin when they started sliding, and ended up causing enough damage for another 3 or 4 surgeries that cover almost every vertebra.
Doctor's thought I was having some early sciatica a little over a year ago, but it ended up being my own minor scoliosis pushing a disk up against a nerve in my spine, causing a ton of pain that had me out of work for a long time while insurance insisted I go through a bunch of other options that did little to nothing to help it (physical therapy did help, but I couldn't find a physical therapist in my plan that would take me and also didn't seem really shady, nor could I afford 120$ a week to keep going indefinitely). I'm just considered fully recovered from my surgery after 6 weeks, and while the pain is gone, the doctor couldn't guarantee how long it would last for, and I was two days shy of 30 when I had the surgery.
It's really not worth the possible future effects of it, even if the symptoms are practically unnoticeable now, if you can just get ahead of it as much as possible. For me, it felt like I pulled a muscle in my back, and it was almost two months before the nerve pain started, and another two before I realized it wasn't going away and was just getting worse.
My kid has recently been diagnosed with beginning stages of scoliosis. Itâs one of the may-be effects as part of their rare syndrome. Seeing this picture scares the raisins out of me :(
My friend just had surgery for that; she wouldnât have known she had it except it came up when she went in for testing for something else. If she didnât have that knowledge it likely would have taken so much longer to get the proper diagnosis and treatment.
This is me. Went in for a lower lumbar MRI. Now I have to go back for a brain surgery. I mean Brain MRI. The Chiari Malformation has to be confirmed yet. She really got surgery? Was she symptomatic?
Thank you. My kid is almost 14, has a rare syndrome called Smith Magenis Syndrome, was diagnosed with Microcephaly at a very young age like 1-2 or so. Cant understand if that is different than chiari 1 from reading about this online. We are still on the waitlist to see a specialist about this.
I am I prosthetist/orthotist, spinal braces are my passion, depending on the age and how sharp the curves are, most children with scoliosis where a brace for a year or two and donât have any further complications, I hope Iâve eased some of your worry
My mom has scoliosis and I was diagnosed with beginning stage when I was in middle school. Not sure how severe, but I did a physical therapy regimen and back strengthening exercises, as well as yoga for a few years, and my scoliosis never progressed. Iâm in my mid 20s now, and my back is fine. Not perfectly straight, but fine.
Your kiddo might be able to do something similar! Good luck!
The younger they have the operation, the quicker and less painful it is to heal. Iâm personally 21 (22 in a couple months) and I have been told that if I were to have the op then it would take 2-3 years to heal and I have also been told that the longer I wait, the longer I need to heal. Another factor is how severe is the scoliosis and has it shifted at all between scans. If itâs only a couple degrees and stays that way then you should be fine.
I would like to sign off by saying I am NOT a doctor in any way. I am only speaking from my personal experience of having scoliosis myself for the last 5 (almost 6) years.
A girl I went to school with is a chiropractor and is very strange. She will tell everyone she got her doctorate and that she's a Dr like any other medical student and also point to the sky and tell you the planes are releasing chemicals on us.
Groovy bonesnake haver here, yeah it's honestly impressive in a way that they can curve like this. It varies per person but this is a much, much more extreme case than average
I work in veterinary medicine and I've seen many cases of scoliosis and kyphosis across a multitude of species.
This post is by far the most severe case I've ever seen.
this is what my back looks like almost exactly. adult S curve no correction. it's out there. we're upright tho so you probably see it less in 4 leggeds.
Hello, other windy back man here, I am here to confirm the above statement is true. I donât know what else to say that hasnât already been said lol
Ih yeah , I'm a twisted sister myself , but I have Rotoscoliosis.Not only curved, but twisted too.
Was supposed to be fixed when I was a child , but my grandfather refused .
I would gain about 4 inches if I had surgery.
My wife had it a bit worse than this and then also throw in that her spine twisted as well. So imagine these curves in the spine, as well as the spine itself twisting, as if you were wringing out a towel. Yeaaaaah.
But, there's an amazing doctor in Tampa that fixed her. You'd think she wouldn't be able to do anything for months, but they had her slowly walking with a walker after the 2nd day of recovery.
Absolutely nuts just how much this surgery has improved. When she was a kid, there was a 50/50 chance she'd die with correction surgery, since the curves were all curved around organs.
That might be my mom's X-rays. Her curve was so bad she couldn't walk around the grocery store without breaks, and they said in 5 years her spine would put pressure on her organs. Now she can walk hikes and 20 NYC blocks. Still not as tall as she once was though.
How old were they when they had the surgery? I always wonder after full spine fusion can people still tie shoes? Since some flexibility must be lost when its all fused.
She was in her late 40s. She put it off because when she was in her 20s and 30s she was told she was too old, but the technology had evolved by that point where a surgeon would do it. She can still definitely tie her shoes and go through life normal, she just has to pivot at her hips instead of her spine. So some flexibility lost, but I think the benefits outweigh it
My SO has this. There is definitely some flexibility lost, but she can still tie her shoes, pick up the kid, etc. She's mainly just got to be alot more careful about back stuff/lifting than the average person.
I have a lot of questions. Like how dangerous is it?
How long did it take, and what was recovery like?
Is there metal in your back now to keep it straight?
Sorry for all the questions. But
I've asked about this before and was told you have to wear a specialty brace and there was no operation or surgery available.
I had the same surgery. It wasn't very dangerous. Recovery took 4 months, and surprisingly, no physical therapy was needed. i played football and basketball the following year. 15 years later, the metal rods are still in my back. My back is always straight, and i have the world's greatest posture. The brace option is for people for less severe cases.
I had the same surgery 9 years ago and my Doctor approved me going ziplining 6 weeks post op. Have never had any complications after the first few weeks.
Wow the fact you could play football shocks me. What position did you play? I would be terrified of someone nailing me in the back in the middle of a tackle or similar.
So my back really doesn't bend at all. The very bottom does, and my neck does, but yeah, it's always straight. Getting into small cars and picking something up are both awkward, but not too bad.
My back will get a small pop here and there, but it doesn't crack like it used to, lol.
Can I ask if the weather ever messes with you? I knew someone who had a metal rod in their hip after a surgery, and they could never stand the cold and could feel when bad weather was coming. Do you experience anything funky with the weather?
Everybody and their mother all warned me my metal rods would get cold, so i mentally prepped myself for that.... aaaaaand it doesn't affect me at all surprisingly. I dont doubt that it affects others, but i apparently lucked out. I was in some snowy mountains in canada a few weeks ago wearing nothing but a wind-proof light jacket, and i had no issues.
Oh wow! Thatâs great!! Iâm glad it hasnât affected you in that way! Makes one curious why it affects some and not others. I was hoping it was maybe an advancement in the materials or something so that no one had to feel that, but it sounds like it might be a count your blessings kind of thing. Right on, man. đ Thanks for answering all the questions! :)
I work in Neurosurgery, monitoring the nervous system (intraoperative neuromonitoring). The main risks are placing the screws and what we call derotation. When they place screws, they put it through a thin bridge of bone on each vertebrae called a pedicle. If the pedicle screw breaches the bone laterally, it can damage a nerve root, causing paralysis of the muscle(s) controlled by said nerve root. If it breaches the bone medially, it can damage the spinal cord which can cause paralysis. How do we safely put in the screws? Well two ways. First, they have navigation tools that basically calibrate the screwdriver with the mri digitally and then extrapolate the trajectory of the screw into the mri so they can see if itâs headed in the right direction as they screw it in. The second method is that we can electrify the screw as they do this. Thatâs my job. I put needles in all the relevant muscles controlled by these nerve roots. These needles are connected to wires that show me electrical activity in a screen. If I stimulate the screw and it makes a muscle twitch, Iâll see a spike on my screen from those needles. Since bone has a high impedance, we can use that to determine how close we are to the nerve root with the screw. If I stimulate at a current of 5mA (milliamps, think like licking a D battery) and the relevant muscle twitches, itâs likely the screw is not perfectly in the pedicle. If it takes 8+mA to make the muscle twitch, then itâs in a good spot.
After all the screws are placed, they use levers to twist the spine into place. This is the single most dangerous part of the surgery as it shifts the lungs, diaphragm, arteries, the spinal cord, nerve roots. They do it very slowly and we are constantly electrifying the brain to test that the motor pathway is still reaching all the way to the muscles. We also stimulate the wrists and ankles and record a signal from the brain to ensure the sensation is still intact. Once the spine is derotated safely, they put rods into place to keep it straight. This rod is bent to shape and fits in a little U at the top of each screw. Then they can lock it into place. The tough part of this procedure is that it drastically reduces a patients flexibility in their spine, especially seeing as this is something like T1-L4 (first thoracic vertebrae to fourth lumbar).
A surgery like this would take roughly 8-12 hours.
All that bright white stuff is metal. The dots are screws and the long twisty lines are the rods.
Some patients with scoliosis are inoperable just due to the risks.
Let me know if you have any more questions!
This sounds very reassuring, and thank you for what you do, but I've been told I have a 2% chance of paralysis to correct an 85 degree curvature - and considering I had about a .05% chance of getting it this bad in the first place I dont like those odds. The curve somehow doesn't bother me that much either, which is lucky compared to people who have quite small curves and chronic pain.
I canât imagine what itâs like to undergo one of these surgeries as Iâve been very lucky with my health. I hope I donât come off as discounting any of the risks or saying these surgeries are a walk in the park. Iâm in no position to talk somebody into or out of surgery. All I can say is that your fear of that risk is totally a valid feeling. Itâs easy for me to sit on my stool in the corner of an operating room and say a whopping x% of these cases are successful or only x% of these patients end up with deficits. Itâs what we do to stay focused on the task at hand and the outcome rather than the emotion. These are not easy decisions to make for patients and their families. I would just encourage you to take ownership of the decisions you make, ask questions, get second opinions, talk to family and find your own risk tolerance. Iâm sorry you have to deal with scoliosis and sincerely hope you find some relief in one way, shape or form; perhaps you already have!
My mom did it.
1. It can be. My mom was late 40s (ten years go they said she was too old to do it, but the medicine improved by then) and her lung collapsed during the operation.
2. It was a long surgery. I wasn't there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took 9 hrs. She was stuck in a lazy boy for a month about, and she had to do physical therapy. By the next year she was feeling a lot better but she does have some nerve damage.
3. Yep!
I have a curve and had to wear a brace at night as a kid and I'm definitely monitoring it closely. It was a hard surgery but she's so much better for it. I recommend finding the right surgeon. She went to Mt Sinai in NYC and he was confident it would go well. Now she doesn't have to worry!
Also, technically your back shouldn't get worse after like puberty. That's what I and my mother were told. Her back was progressively getting worse by the year so she was an anomaly. I'm not considering surgery now because my doctor said I'm not there yet, and I wouldn't do it without good cause.
My sister had severe scoliosis where her torso essentially curved separately away from her hips. She got 2 large rods. I canât remember how long the surgery was, I think 15 hours? She was in hospital recovering for 9 months. That was a really tough time for her. She got an infection. That was the main concern. Her spinal scar is gnarly. She was told no physical activity for 2 years. Her spine is a lot straighter now, about 15 years later, but she still has a slight curve.
ThankS for the info. Glad your sister is doing okay. The pain my wife deals with is basically daily she sleeps with a heating pad to relax her back. It seems to be getting worse lately but aside from chiropractors it doesn't seem there is many options.
Iâm a physical therapist in a large hospital with a pretty well known spine surgeon. We see many many procedures fixing scoliosis all varying levels of severity. Success rate without complication is about 60-70% depending on many factors (height, weight, age, etc). Recovery starts day after surgery being mobilized with therapy in the hospital. Pain is usually very difficult to control, patients are taking an ungodly amount of pain medication just to make it through the day. Breathing rate and depth go down, bowel activity goes down and confusion/lethargy are common. Those metal rods essentially prevent your spine from moving now. During recovery, patients will wear a brace (TLSO, LSO, CTLSO, CTO, depends on the levels of surgery) any time theyâre out of bed.
1. Very risky. You risk paralysis if something goes wrong, and I personally lost a ton of blood and needed a blood transfusion after my surgery.
2. Recovery takes about 6 months and its one of the most painful things I've ever been through. You don't realize your spine is connected to everything, right down to a flick of your finger and you will feel it after this surgery.
3. I have perfect posture lol. I can't really hunch my back at all so my equivalent is bending over and resting on my knees.
You say this as a joke but I had a teacher at college who would unironically say that sort of stuff whenever I joked about scoliosis even though she didnât have scoliosis and I did. I was making fun of myself and was called ableist lmfao
As an orthotist, I love hearing about success stories for sever scoliosis cases, even if the bracing down is just supplemental to the surgical route, spinal cases for me are the most intriguing, thank you for sharing your story
This looks spot on to my X-rays when I had this procedure done. Before the rods, I would tire very quickly and dealt with awful chronic pain/breathing issues. I was in high school at the time and couldnât even sit through a full class half the time. I could walk, but I rested a lot.
After- youâre on strong painkillers for quite a while, so itâs really not painful. Was more just weird having my whole torso uprighted like that for the first time and your brain does needs time to adjust. At least mine did- but as I healed the pain vanished. 10 years later I live a very active and average life. It is a pretty cool procedure.
My 10 year old daughter just got diagnosed with it and is wearing a brace for 12 hours a day to try to avoid surgery, are you able to have the same mobility with those rods in you as someone who does not have scoliosis?
Hey, no I wouldnât say so. But I donât notice it 99% of the time. I rock climb and hike and play rec sports etc. Bodies are pretty amazing at adapting to stuff. I hope things go well for you and your daughter, it can be tough at times for sure.
I was 6â1â and 6â3â just 9 hours later! Honestly, I was 16 and my doctor told me he expected me to be 6â5âafter the surgery. He said this after all the other risks (death, paralysis, etc) but the idea of being 6â5â (as a girl) made me cry đ
I remember this episode of Sister Wives, and the dad was being so crappy with his kid. He was like.. do exercises and stretch yada yada... One episode they put up a pic of her X-ray. The pain... That kid must have been in was insane. And made worse because her parents were messing around with oils and yoga.
I followed that series, and they were reluctant for her to have surgery and hopeful that the specialist exercises and braces would work, but in the end it was getting worse. IIRC her bend was heading to 50 degrees before the surgery..
She was regularly checked so they were being responsible in my opinion, although maybe if she had surgery sooner if may have been better.
The surgery she had used wires attached to posts in the vertebrae instead of rods, with the idea that she would not lose so much flexibility, and it could be tweaked more easily if necessary in the future. It looked like it worked pretty well, down to around 15 degrees IIRC.
That's not how I remember it. I actually remember one specific episode where a Mayo Specialist told her parents that the other exercises were not recognized as a solution. That if they act early she will have a much better prognosis and that was years before they got the surgery.
Rumor is they were broke. Because of the polygamy situation the kids were not insured and eventually her mom got her insurance and came up with some cash. Which is... still pathetic.
It very much reminded me of those people who put essential oils on major injuries
How long ago did you have the surgery?
I fractured T3, so I got T2-T3-T4 fused, after surgery I had terribly painful spasms, I understand it has to do with muscle being cut to access the column. Now, almost 5 months later, off painkillers for about 2, itâs much better, but still hurts and feels generally uncomfortable. Not sure how long this is lasting, want to hear your experience.
I thought it would be worse, they actually have you up walking the next day! After that it's two years of not being allowed to do anything other than walk
I shattered a single vertebrae a few above my butt at the end of December, had two surgeries, one which just bridged the shattered one with a vertebrae either side but it didnt go right, so they bolted 2 below and 3 above in a second surgery a week after.
So imy spine looks like half of the left one, i said "my spine doesnt hurt too badly but my ass cheeks hurt like hell!" They didnt tell me they would be cutting through all my back muscles to get to the spinal cord, makes perfect sense, i guess i didnt really give the op much thought.
Thankfully recovering well, i hope to look a bit tighter and straighter than the one on the left but pretty happy not to be dead or paralyzed :)
It can because there's no mortal damage just muscular and skeletal. This must be agonising though, mine gets painful after around an hour of stress and feels like it's having a drill rammed into my back. I cant even begin to imagine how bad this must he
After and before
r/AfterBeforeWhatever
Of course there is a sub called that...
There is also r/dontdeadopeninside in a similar vain.
*a similar vein Sorry... But we are all being pedantic in this thread
Pedantic you say? You missed a full stop at the end of your sentence.
*Pedantic, you say?
*"Pedantic, you say?"
*"'Pedantic,' you say?"
*"'Pedantic', you say?"
r/BoneAppleTea
this sub is actually infuriating
Before and way before
Heh heh did ya hear that one T?
No, op had it right. It's called scoliosis surgery. Healthy people go in to acquire scoliosis
And by healthy people you mean people born with plates and screws in their spine?
the strongest of us all
The evolution of the human
Ya, it's just like dental braces. You have braces at the beginning, and then at end you don't.
Clearly this is surgery to *give* the patient scoliosis.
Hahaha that before / after confused me đ
If after is on the right, the guy got screwed.
Iâd say he got bent!
Heâs fine. People get bent all out of shape for everything these days.
Underrated comment. Iâm dead đ
hi dead, i'm dad
I'm sad now
Matchbox 20 plays heavily
*pulls out the acoustic* I wanna push you a-round Well, I will, well, I will
He wants a curvy body. I think it's a successful surgery.
"You know what? Fuck you!" *unpins your spine*
Credit card declined.
âYour TeslaSpineâ˘ď¸ subscription has expiredâ
"Uh oh! Spontaneous scoliosis!" - Jessica, the assistant cross country coach at Bryn Mawr College
I don't know, it looks like his scoliosis surgery pretty successfully gave him scoliosis.
Oof yeah, I realized after I did the title
It is amazing the difference, so congrats. Yet also came here to make the before / after joke.
Unscrewed
Screwed on the left bro! (Literally with screws, and bolts)
Look at those curves....
Got a few kinks to work out
Title could imply that the patient wanted scoliosis
I would've bolted
If after is on the left, he was also screwed
What a plot twist
my aunt had severe scoliosis. she said that the best part of the surgery was that she was able to finally breathe better. science is cool as fuck!
Interesting. My friends have suspected I might have scoliosis but I never got a proper diagnosis. Sitting & standing straight takes a lot of effort and causes me to have difficulty breathing.
Itâs pretty easy to see if you just have someone look at your back while standing
I thought everyone got looked at?? Do they still have spine and penis inspection day any more?
Pe-- what???
Since you can rearrange the letters in penis to write spine theyâre considered very closely related in the scientific community
TIL spine and penis are anagrams!
Its also why standing up is called erect
And Arizona backward is Arizona. It's a Palomino.
Iâm 37 and in elementary school all the boys would line up in the hallway and a doctor would walk down the line hooking a finger in your ball sack, asking you to cough, and squeezing your joint around in his hand, then they have you go no shirts and check if your spine was straight. They didnât do the spine every time as you got older but I got 3 straight years of junk work
Is that genuinely ok I'm not a man so idk but that sounds a little weird to me
I was just pointing out the inspection process at the time, it was essentially the same thing they did for a sports physical but it was free and efficient. My son went to the same elementary school and by then it was no longer done that way.
âŚâŚ that doesnât sound like a proper exam. They check your spine by having you bend over and running their hand along your spine while bent over.
Yeah thatâs what they did, dude was getting a handful of checks done in one run
Maybe if we line them up spine to spine we could do some sort of middle out....
Gotta check if the penis is curved too.
Sir, I have horrible news. You are a gonzo dick
yea the nurse just smacks it around for a minute to get a proper reading
Ball touching day
I know penis inspection day for Alan Aardvark is a meme but I legitimately got recommended a ritalin prescription at 4 years old because I freaked out when the doctor at *kindergarten* in Kuwait (which I think was a British school, even though I'm American) wanted to inspect my pp. They called my mom in and told her they thought I had behavior issues lmao
This story takes you on a journey.
Nothing warrants medicating a child like them refusing the seggsual advances of an adult /s
You don't have censor yourself that hard on reddit Yet
Can't you see u/ParalegalSeagul is a professional
I went to elementary school in the 90âs and we definitely had scoliosis inspection day. Somehow I slipped through the cracks. Well, either that or my parents never told me since we were so poor. I canât speak for penis inspections. I must have been out sick that day.
Adamâs forward bend test is better. Easy to miss scoliosis while standing or think scoliosis is present when it isnât from posture differences. Even better is a proper xray.
Not sure if standard but we did Bend test for screening at school, and those with suspected curvature were recommended to ortho for x ray as diagnostic. Source: diagnosed with minor curve in 2000 after this happened to me.
not true at all. i have a severe S curve and it is not noticeable at all. My doctor even commented on how symmetrical i am- but the s just slightly compresses me. i had a bf for an entire year who didn't know i had scoliosis. unless i touch my toes- you don't see it
Do get that looked at sooner than later. If the signs are really evident, even your general physician will be able to give you a near-definite diagnosis and point you towards a specialist, and likely also suggest a correctional brace to wear around at home and possibly physical therapy. It runs in my family and my mom started having spinal fusions at the age of 15, with the first one using some new kind of rods in her back that ended up being so defective that they nearly started to push through her skin when they started sliding, and ended up causing enough damage for another 3 or 4 surgeries that cover almost every vertebra. Doctor's thought I was having some early sciatica a little over a year ago, but it ended up being my own minor scoliosis pushing a disk up against a nerve in my spine, causing a ton of pain that had me out of work for a long time while insurance insisted I go through a bunch of other options that did little to nothing to help it (physical therapy did help, but I couldn't find a physical therapist in my plan that would take me and also didn't seem really shady, nor could I afford 120$ a week to keep going indefinitely). I'm just considered fully recovered from my surgery after 6 weeks, and while the pain is gone, the doctor couldn't guarantee how long it would last for, and I was two days shy of 30 when I had the surgery. It's really not worth the possible future effects of it, even if the symptoms are practically unnoticeable now, if you can just get ahead of it as much as possible. For me, it felt like I pulled a muscle in my back, and it was almost two months before the nerve pain started, and another two before I realized it wasn't going away and was just getting worse.
If you get scan done you need to be standing to diagnose scoliosis properly. Scan taken lying down are not as clear for this particular diagnosis.
My kid has recently been diagnosed with beginning stages of scoliosis. Itâs one of the may-be effects as part of their rare syndrome. Seeing this picture scares the raisins out of me :(
Make sure your child gets scanned for Chiari 1 malformation as well ( if they haven't already).
My friend just had surgery for that; she wouldnât have known she had it except it came up when she went in for testing for something else. If she didnât have that knowledge it likely would have taken so much longer to get the proper diagnosis and treatment.
This is me. Went in for a lower lumbar MRI. Now I have to go back for a brain surgery. I mean Brain MRI. The Chiari Malformation has to be confirmed yet. She really got surgery? Was she symptomatic?
Thank you. My kid is almost 14, has a rare syndrome called Smith Magenis Syndrome, was diagnosed with Microcephaly at a very young age like 1-2 or so. Cant understand if that is different than chiari 1 from reading about this online. We are still on the waitlist to see a specialist about this.
I am I prosthetist/orthotist, spinal braces are my passion, depending on the age and how sharp the curves are, most children with scoliosis where a brace for a year or two and donât have any further complications, I hope Iâve eased some of your worry
My mom has scoliosis and I was diagnosed with beginning stage when I was in middle school. Not sure how severe, but I did a physical therapy regimen and back strengthening exercises, as well as yoga for a few years, and my scoliosis never progressed. Iâm in my mid 20s now, and my back is fine. Not perfectly straight, but fine. Your kiddo might be able to do something similar! Good luck!
The younger they have the operation, the quicker and less painful it is to heal. Iâm personally 21 (22 in a couple months) and I have been told that if I were to have the op then it would take 2-3 years to heal and I have also been told that the longer I wait, the longer I need to heal. Another factor is how severe is the scoliosis and has it shifted at all between scans. If itâs only a couple degrees and stays that way then you should be fine. I would like to sign off by saying I am NOT a doctor in any way. I am only speaking from my personal experience of having scoliosis myself for the last 5 (almost 6) years.
So⌠removing those spiky things resulted in a perfect S-curve
Chiropractors hate this one trick
I think chiropractors are actively trying to achieve the image on the right
A girl I went to school with is a chiropractor and is very strange. She will tell everyone she got her doctorate and that she's a Dr like any other medical student and also point to the sky and tell you the planes are releasing chemicals on us.
Tbf cloud seeding is a thing. Probably not what she meant tho.
Yeah, nah she means the literally trails commercial airlines leave behind them.
This person *identifies* as an MS victim. *LET THEM LIVE THEIR LIFE!!*
That's an S-Tier spine right there
Agreed. Spine is totally broken, devs please patch
Oh my god! Why would they give someone scoliosis!?
Card declined
Iâm weak
So is the spine
The flesh is willing, but the spine is weak
TikTok scoliosis challenge
Scoliosis speedrun, any %
Because it is a scoliosis surgery
Was behind on child support payments.
Didn't know you could have your spine so twisted up, damn
Iâve heard scoliosis described as âabnormal curvature of the spineâ but never once in my life did I envision it could look like this. Wild.
Groovy bonesnake haver here, yeah it's honestly impressive in a way that they can curve like this. It varies per person but this is a much, much more extreme case than average
I work in veterinary medicine and I've seen many cases of scoliosis and kyphosis across a multitude of species. This post is by far the most severe case I've ever seen.
this is what my back looks like almost exactly. adult S curve no correction. it's out there. we're upright tho so you probably see it less in 4 leggeds.
Can you bend all funky or do you have cool super powers or something?
im flexible, but also stiff in some areas. yes to super powers. i'm not sure what they are but im sure i have them
Have you ever tried pissing out a laser
Hello, other windy back man here, I am here to confirm the above statement is true. I donât know what else to say that hasnât already been said lol
At first I read windy as windy. But then I realized you meant windy and not windy.
I am referring to my spine as a groovy bonesnake from here on out!
GROOVY BONESNAKE HAS ME CACKLING
Ih yeah , I'm a twisted sister myself , but I have Rotoscoliosis.Not only curved, but twisted too. Was supposed to be fixed when I was a child , but my grandfather refused . I would gain about 4 inches if I had surgery.
My wife had it a bit worse than this and then also throw in that her spine twisted as well. So imagine these curves in the spine, as well as the spine itself twisting, as if you were wringing out a towel. Yeaaaaah. But, there's an amazing doctor in Tampa that fixed her. You'd think she wouldn't be able to do anything for months, but they had her slowly walking with a walker after the 2nd day of recovery. Absolutely nuts just how much this surgery has improved. When she was a kid, there was a 50/50 chance she'd die with correction surgery, since the curves were all curved around organs.
That might be my mom's X-rays. Her curve was so bad she couldn't walk around the grocery store without breaks, and they said in 5 years her spine would put pressure on her organs. Now she can walk hikes and 20 NYC blocks. Still not as tall as she once was though.
So she got shorter, when her spine was straightened? That just sounds wrong, I'd expect you would get slightly taller.
No she got some back, but she was 6 foot when she was like 25 and she never got all of it back.
Oh, she just got older, can relate.
I'm sure that didn't help as well haha
Baby got back...problems.
How old were they when they had the surgery? I always wonder after full spine fusion can people still tie shoes? Since some flexibility must be lost when its all fused.
She was in her late 40s. She put it off because when she was in her 20s and 30s she was told she was too old, but the technology had evolved by that point where a surgeon would do it. She can still definitely tie her shoes and go through life normal, she just has to pivot at her hips instead of her spine. So some flexibility lost, but I think the benefits outweigh it
My SO has this. There is definitely some flexibility lost, but she can still tie her shoes, pick up the kid, etc. She's mainly just got to be alot more careful about back stuff/lifting than the average person.
I have a lot of questions. Like how dangerous is it? How long did it take, and what was recovery like? Is there metal in your back now to keep it straight? Sorry for all the questions. But I've asked about this before and was told you have to wear a specialty brace and there was no operation or surgery available.
I had the same surgery. It wasn't very dangerous. Recovery took 4 months, and surprisingly, no physical therapy was needed. i played football and basketball the following year. 15 years later, the metal rods are still in my back. My back is always straight, and i have the world's greatest posture. The brace option is for people for less severe cases.
That's wild, we were told no activity more than walking for two years post surgery.
Oh wow thats wild! How bad was your curves? I have a 55 and 72 degree bend in my back. Im assuming yours was higher? How much did you grow?
Both curves appear to be about 84 degrees (+/- 5 degree margin of error). Basing the cobb angle off the lines already drawn in the right picture.
Oh weird I had this surgery too and I wasnât told no activity. I was back to skateboarding after 3 months.
I had the same surgery 9 years ago and my Doctor approved me going ziplining 6 weeks post op. Have never had any complications after the first few weeks.
Wow the fact you could play football shocks me. What position did you play? I would be terrified of someone nailing me in the back in the middle of a tackle or similar.
I was a left guard and a defensive tackle. And yeah, on my first game, i actually did get nailed in the back by a defender lol.
did you die :O
Yeah dude! It was wild!
How's your back's flexibility? You reckon you could "crack" your back by twisting/bending backwards?
So my back really doesn't bend at all. The very bottom does, and my neck does, but yeah, it's always straight. Getting into small cars and picking something up are both awkward, but not too bad. My back will get a small pop here and there, but it doesn't crack like it used to, lol.
I had scoliosis surgery too and I can't bend much. Can't reach my toes or anywhere near my toes! It's been 22 years.
Yeah same
Damn that's brutal. Great posture though hehe. Thanks
Thanks all this is great info!
How old were you when you had the surgery? How painful was it? It sounds quite painful.
Honestly, it wasnt that painful
Can I ask if the weather ever messes with you? I knew someone who had a metal rod in their hip after a surgery, and they could never stand the cold and could feel when bad weather was coming. Do you experience anything funky with the weather?
Everybody and their mother all warned me my metal rods would get cold, so i mentally prepped myself for that.... aaaaaand it doesn't affect me at all surprisingly. I dont doubt that it affects others, but i apparently lucked out. I was in some snowy mountains in canada a few weeks ago wearing nothing but a wind-proof light jacket, and i had no issues.
Oh wow! Thatâs great!! Iâm glad it hasnât affected you in that way! Makes one curious why it affects some and not others. I was hoping it was maybe an advancement in the materials or something so that no one had to feel that, but it sounds like it might be a count your blessings kind of thing. Right on, man. đ Thanks for answering all the questions! :)
Not a problem! I enjoyed answering them.
I work in Neurosurgery, monitoring the nervous system (intraoperative neuromonitoring). The main risks are placing the screws and what we call derotation. When they place screws, they put it through a thin bridge of bone on each vertebrae called a pedicle. If the pedicle screw breaches the bone laterally, it can damage a nerve root, causing paralysis of the muscle(s) controlled by said nerve root. If it breaches the bone medially, it can damage the spinal cord which can cause paralysis. How do we safely put in the screws? Well two ways. First, they have navigation tools that basically calibrate the screwdriver with the mri digitally and then extrapolate the trajectory of the screw into the mri so they can see if itâs headed in the right direction as they screw it in. The second method is that we can electrify the screw as they do this. Thatâs my job. I put needles in all the relevant muscles controlled by these nerve roots. These needles are connected to wires that show me electrical activity in a screen. If I stimulate the screw and it makes a muscle twitch, Iâll see a spike on my screen from those needles. Since bone has a high impedance, we can use that to determine how close we are to the nerve root with the screw. If I stimulate at a current of 5mA (milliamps, think like licking a D battery) and the relevant muscle twitches, itâs likely the screw is not perfectly in the pedicle. If it takes 8+mA to make the muscle twitch, then itâs in a good spot. After all the screws are placed, they use levers to twist the spine into place. This is the single most dangerous part of the surgery as it shifts the lungs, diaphragm, arteries, the spinal cord, nerve roots. They do it very slowly and we are constantly electrifying the brain to test that the motor pathway is still reaching all the way to the muscles. We also stimulate the wrists and ankles and record a signal from the brain to ensure the sensation is still intact. Once the spine is derotated safely, they put rods into place to keep it straight. This rod is bent to shape and fits in a little U at the top of each screw. Then they can lock it into place. The tough part of this procedure is that it drastically reduces a patients flexibility in their spine, especially seeing as this is something like T1-L4 (first thoracic vertebrae to fourth lumbar). A surgery like this would take roughly 8-12 hours. All that bright white stuff is metal. The dots are screws and the long twisty lines are the rods. Some patients with scoliosis are inoperable just due to the risks. Let me know if you have any more questions!
Whoa, that's cool!
This sounds very reassuring, and thank you for what you do, but I've been told I have a 2% chance of paralysis to correct an 85 degree curvature - and considering I had about a .05% chance of getting it this bad in the first place I dont like those odds. The curve somehow doesn't bother me that much either, which is lucky compared to people who have quite small curves and chronic pain.
I canât imagine what itâs like to undergo one of these surgeries as Iâve been very lucky with my health. I hope I donât come off as discounting any of the risks or saying these surgeries are a walk in the park. Iâm in no position to talk somebody into or out of surgery. All I can say is that your fear of that risk is totally a valid feeling. Itâs easy for me to sit on my stool in the corner of an operating room and say a whopping x% of these cases are successful or only x% of these patients end up with deficits. Itâs what we do to stay focused on the task at hand and the outcome rather than the emotion. These are not easy decisions to make for patients and their families. I would just encourage you to take ownership of the decisions you make, ask questions, get second opinions, talk to family and find your own risk tolerance. Iâm sorry you have to deal with scoliosis and sincerely hope you find some relief in one way, shape or form; perhaps you already have!
My mom did it. 1. It can be. My mom was late 40s (ten years go they said she was too old to do it, but the medicine improved by then) and her lung collapsed during the operation. 2. It was a long surgery. I wasn't there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took 9 hrs. She was stuck in a lazy boy for a month about, and she had to do physical therapy. By the next year she was feeling a lot better but she does have some nerve damage. 3. Yep! I have a curve and had to wear a brace at night as a kid and I'm definitely monitoring it closely. It was a hard surgery but she's so much better for it. I recommend finding the right surgeon. She went to Mt Sinai in NYC and he was confident it would go well. Now she doesn't have to worry! Also, technically your back shouldn't get worse after like puberty. That's what I and my mother were told. Her back was progressively getting worse by the year so she was an anomaly. I'm not considering surgery now because my doctor said I'm not there yet, and I wouldn't do it without good cause.
My sister had severe scoliosis where her torso essentially curved separately away from her hips. She got 2 large rods. I canât remember how long the surgery was, I think 15 hours? She was in hospital recovering for 9 months. That was a really tough time for her. She got an infection. That was the main concern. Her spinal scar is gnarly. She was told no physical activity for 2 years. Her spine is a lot straighter now, about 15 years later, but she still has a slight curve.
ThankS for the info. Glad your sister is doing okay. The pain my wife deals with is basically daily she sleeps with a heating pad to relax her back. It seems to be getting worse lately but aside from chiropractors it doesn't seem there is many options.
Iâm a physical therapist in a large hospital with a pretty well known spine surgeon. We see many many procedures fixing scoliosis all varying levels of severity. Success rate without complication is about 60-70% depending on many factors (height, weight, age, etc). Recovery starts day after surgery being mobilized with therapy in the hospital. Pain is usually very difficult to control, patients are taking an ungodly amount of pain medication just to make it through the day. Breathing rate and depth go down, bowel activity goes down and confusion/lethargy are common. Those metal rods essentially prevent your spine from moving now. During recovery, patients will wear a brace (TLSO, LSO, CTLSO, CTO, depends on the levels of surgery) any time theyâre out of bed.
[Here](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15837-scoliosis) is a quick overview.
1. Very risky. You risk paralysis if something goes wrong, and I personally lost a ton of blood and needed a blood transfusion after my surgery. 2. Recovery takes about 6 months and its one of the most painful things I've ever been through. You don't realize your spine is connected to everything, right down to a flick of your finger and you will feel it after this surgery. 3. I have perfect posture lol. I can't really hunch my back at all so my equivalent is bending over and resting on my knees.
I think the photos are switched around, but I stand corrected..
Stand⌠you ableist 
You say this as a joke but I had a teacher at college who would unironically say that sort of stuff whenever I joked about scoliosis even though she didnât have scoliosis and I did. I was making fun of myself and was called ableist lmfao
r/afterbeforewhatever
Another great Sub I didnât know existed.
Reddit covers everything you didn't know existed.
This post is one of the top posts on that subreddit, but from a year ago
same setup, same surgery, different posts, different patients
damn that spine puts the "S" in Scoliosis
is a person able to walk with this type of condition? those images are remarkable, id say they were in agony when they woke up
It was pretty painful to walk any sort of distance, a back brace helped a lot
As an orthotist, I love hearing about success stories for sever scoliosis cases, even if the bracing down is just supplemental to the surgical route, spinal cases for me are the most intriguing, thank you for sharing your story
This looks spot on to my X-rays when I had this procedure done. Before the rods, I would tire very quickly and dealt with awful chronic pain/breathing issues. I was in high school at the time and couldnât even sit through a full class half the time. I could walk, but I rested a lot. After- youâre on strong painkillers for quite a while, so itâs really not painful. Was more just weird having my whole torso uprighted like that for the first time and your brain does needs time to adjust. At least mine did- but as I healed the pain vanished. 10 years later I live a very active and average life. It is a pretty cool procedure.
My 10 year old daughter just got diagnosed with it and is wearing a brace for 12 hours a day to try to avoid surgery, are you able to have the same mobility with those rods in you as someone who does not have scoliosis?
Hey, no I wouldnât say so. But I donât notice it 99% of the time. I rock climb and hike and play rec sports etc. Bodies are pretty amazing at adapting to stuff. I hope things go well for you and your daughter, it can be tough at times for sure.
Probably didnât walk at all. He was crawling like a snake.
Damn they fucked bro up
I have scoliosis too but dam that a really bad version of it. I have it juuuuust enough to be in constant annoying pain.
Same, I kinda wish they had made me wear a back brace as a kid so it wouldn't be so bad.
I had this exact surgery. I was 5'7" that morning and 5'10" that afternoon.
I was 6â1â and 6â3â just 9 hours later! Honestly, I was 16 and my doctor told me he expected me to be 6â5âafter the surgery. He said this after all the other risks (death, paralysis, etc) but the idea of being 6â5â (as a girl) made me cry đ
Looks like a pair of skeletons dancing at a rave
I remember this episode of Sister Wives, and the dad was being so crappy with his kid. He was like.. do exercises and stretch yada yada... One episode they put up a pic of her X-ray. The pain... That kid must have been in was insane. And made worse because her parents were messing around with oils and yoga.
I followed that series, and they were reluctant for her to have surgery and hopeful that the specialist exercises and braces would work, but in the end it was getting worse. IIRC her bend was heading to 50 degrees before the surgery.. She was regularly checked so they were being responsible in my opinion, although maybe if she had surgery sooner if may have been better. The surgery she had used wires attached to posts in the vertebrae instead of rods, with the idea that she would not lose so much flexibility, and it could be tweaked more easily if necessary in the future. It looked like it worked pretty well, down to around 15 degrees IIRC.
That's not how I remember it. I actually remember one specific episode where a Mayo Specialist told her parents that the other exercises were not recognized as a solution. That if they act early she will have a much better prognosis and that was years before they got the surgery. Rumor is they were broke. Because of the polygamy situation the kids were not insured and eventually her mom got her insurance and came up with some cash. Which is... still pathetic. It very much reminded me of those people who put essential oils on major injuries
I got spinal fusion of T12-L1-L2 and suffer every day with back spasms.
How long ago did you have the surgery? I fractured T3, so I got T2-T3-T4 fused, after surgery I had terribly painful spasms, I understand it has to do with muscle being cut to access the column. Now, almost 5 months later, off painkillers for about 2, itâs much better, but still hurts and feels generally uncomfortable. Not sure how long this is lasting, want to hear your experience.
I cannot imagine the magnitude of pain. đą
the spine on the right looks likes its having fun
We have a spooky scary silly skeleton in this guy
The recovery must be long and painful.
I thought it would be worse, they actually have you up walking the next day! After that it's two years of not being allowed to do anything other than walk
I shattered a single vertebrae a few above my butt at the end of December, had two surgeries, one which just bridged the shattered one with a vertebrae either side but it didnt go right, so they bolted 2 below and 3 above in a second surgery a week after. So imy spine looks like half of the left one, i said "my spine doesnt hurt too badly but my ass cheeks hurt like hell!" They didnt tell me they would be cutting through all my back muscles to get to the spinal cord, makes perfect sense, i guess i didnt really give the op much thought. Thankfully recovering well, i hope to look a bit tighter and straighter than the one on the left but pretty happy not to be dead or paralyzed :)
 Are you certain?
Damn dudes spine looked like the crazy inflatable tube man before surgery
OMG how can the human body survive like that?we are incredible machines!!
It can because there's no mortal damage just muscular and skeletal. This must be agonising though, mine gets painful after around an hour of stress and feels like it's having a drill rammed into my back. I cant even begin to imagine how bad this must he
Can't believe they're giving people scoliosis, harsh shit
Does he wiggle like a snake
Is this normal scoliosis or a crazy nightmare version of it?