A little more about me...

Well, I've never had a blog before or even posted a message on anyone else's blog so please bear with me as I figure out how everything works.

I decided to start this blog since I have scoliosis and although there are a lot of scoliosis blogs out there, most seem to revolve around people who have had surgery and/or wore a brace to improve their curve. As for myself, I was too old (i.e. was not going to grow enough) when I was diagnosed with scoliosis (kyphoscoliosis to be exact) to make wearing a brace useful. I have not had surgery and I don't intend to either. None of my doctors have ever recommended that I even see a specialist, except when I was diagnosed at age 14, or even seem to be too concerned with my ever-increasing curve and subsequent pain. The most I've ever been told is to exercise more, particularly yoga, to help ease some of the pain.

I'm not usually in pain however, every few months, my curve seems to move a little causing what I call 'back attacks'. This is by far the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced whereby it rips across my rib cage in the back and then comes through my chest such that I have difficulty breathing. I always know when an attack is about to occur since I get shooting pain along my right jaw line. I have Naproxen which I use only when I feel an attack coming on, and if I catch it soon enough, I can usually avoid the attack altogether. If I don't stop it in time, the attack can last anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour or more. Afterwards, I feel very drained and I'm very careful not to move too much in case I set it off again.

I started seeing an acupuncturist just over a year ago since the attacks had been increasing in frequency and I couldn't handle the pain anymore. Acupuncture has done a world of good for me and I can't say enough about it. I had been going twice a week in the beginning and slowly, after a few months, reduced the visits to once a week, then every two weeks, then every month. As with most things I do to make my scoliosis easier to live with, I got used to the treatments and found they weren't as effective any longer. So, I decided to stop for around 2 months to see what would happen. Now, I go every couple of months or so and it's enough to keep the pain away for the most part.

Anyway, that's just a little about where I'm at right now. I'll write more soon.