What Is Scoliosis?

Hey Guys, - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcNwZimiV18

So todays blog is all about what is scoliosis?

When I searched on the Internet the most common definition I found was simply "curvature of the spine" and generally is classed as scoliosis when the curvature is 10 degrees or more out of line than what it should be... so that in a nutshell is what scoliosis is!!

The blog today is split into 3 parts:

1) Facts

2) Causes

  i) symptoms

3)Getting diagnosed.

1)Facts.

 - So roughly 8 out of every 10 causes are idiopathic which is the 'unknown cause' which is a huge amount when you think about it - this means that only 20% of people with scoliosis know why it happened.

- 4 out of every 1000 children get Scoliosis... this doesn't sound that many but when you think about it, seeing as it is quite an unknown condition that is quite alot.  Personally I know three other girls that have had Scoliosis... so that accounts for us 4 out of our 1000 - and before my operation I had never heard of it!

- 7 out of 10 adults aged 65 and over have some form of scoliosis.  This is quite simply because the treatment of the condition has improved so drastically over the past few years that now anyone diagnosed with scoliosis is treated, whereas before those who had scoliosis were left without a brace or physiotherapy and so these people have now grown up and their scoliosis has got worse resulting in this large figure of 7 out of 10 65+ with scoliosis.

2) Causes.

There are two main causes of scoliosis with a 'by product' I would call it, cause of Scoliosis. So the main two are 1) Idiopathic & 2) Hereditary with other causes such as 3) Because of a previous disability 4) Formed in the womb.

So 1) Idiopathic is the cause of my scoliosis, and it literally means 'cause unknown' like I mentioned early so for some reason, the spine simply can't cope with the pressure or the muscles are weak and it forms the 's' shape.  Scoliosis in this form is seem predominately in slim teenage girls - but that's not to say it cant happen to anyone, in fact it does a lot, but it's just seen more commonly in girls because of the growth spurts and the changes in their bodies that they go through during early teenage years.

2) Hereditary causes of scoliosis is as simple as someone being blonde, redhead, brunette, blue eyes, green eyes... it is just a gene that is passed down or carried through which causes the child to have scoliosis.  When speaking to my doctor and from what I believe to be true (I have done lots and lots of research) getting scoliosis through idiopathic does not mean that you will then be carrying the gene that will pass through to your children.

3) Scoliosis can also caused by previous disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy  and Marfan Syndrome which is because similar to the idiopathic, the spine is already weak and so other disabilities can cause the spine to not form properly and so the scoliosis forms.

4) The last cause is one which may freak some people out, but I promise you it's not as scary as it sounds and it is something that rarely happens.  Scoliosis forming in the womb.  This can happen for a number of reasons but it happens during pregnancy when the baby is first forming, and for one reason or another, the baby's spine does not fully form correctly and so curvature of the spine i.e scoliosis, forms.

Now moving on to symptoms... When trying to describe symptoms to people I generally try to describe them like there are three stages 1) obvious 2) further symptoms 3) severe scoliosis symptoms.

So the first stage is like I call it, obvious.  It starts with back pains as a number one symptom, and I'm not saying that just because you have a painful back you might have scoliosis, many many people have back pains and there are so many reasons for it such as lifting heavy objects, working to hard etc and the only back pain I can really explain to you is the pain that I experienced myself.  For me personally the way I can describe it is, you know when you've been bent over for a really long time and you stand back up and you have that agony when you roll back your shoulders? It is very much like that but right down the centre of your spine and all in each vertebrae.  The second most obvious symptom is when you can actually start to see the spine bending - I don't think I really need to go into detail here ha ha.
The second stage of 'further symptoms' are what I always say to people to look at if you think you may have scoliosis. Of course many of these symptoms could be many things but there's never anything wrong with going to get it checked out if you feel like you have any of these.
The problem I find that most teenagers have when going through the process of seeing if they have any of these symptoms is that it is almost impossible for you to see that you have them.  I have found generally that most teenagers don't like their parents in the room with them whilst they're getting showered or bathed hahah, but this was exactly the reason why I didn't spot my scoliosis - I'm not saying that you should allow your parents to; obviously not, but I would highly recommend that if you have any worries that you may have any of these to show your back to a parent or someone who you deeply trust to see if they can spot any.

• The first symptom is one shoulder being higher than the other, so this is obvious if you are sat down and one shoulder feels to be more 'shrugged' upwards than the other.
• The second symptom is the one which I first saw in myself which made me question my spinal shape and that is one shoulder blade being more prominent than the other - this should be quite obvious if you place both hands on the shoulder blades and one is further out than the other one.
• The third symptom is one hip being more prominent than the other - this is quite obvious if when the child stands you can see the hip is higher up like in this photo right here of me just before my operation: 
  
• Clothes not hanging properly is the next symptom; please don't get this confused with when you simply try on clothes and they don't fit properly - this is different and will generally be seen more around the hip or shoulder area and goes hand-in-hand with the other symptoms.
• The last symptom in this category is where you will physically lean to one side, so you may see this in photos or in the mirror, but really you just find you are constantly leaning to the same side all the time and can't seem to stand up straight.

So that is that for the second type of symptoms, you then, if you have very severe scoliosis may experience some of the following symptoms of loss of bladder control, loss of bowel control, erectile dysfunction and weakness or numbness in legs - these symptoms are there when the scoliosis is very severe because it starts to actually affect nerves and blood flow to certain areas of the body making these symptoms possible - if any of these are happening obviously you should go to a doctor immediately anyway, but please please go get checked out!

So if you go the doctors and they say yes there is something unusual with your spinal shape you will then move on to go to see a specialist.  If your GP is in a village or town you will go to the next hospital that specialises in scoliosis - for me I had to travel 40 minutes because my local hospital didn't have a specialist there. I didn't actually have my operation done at the hospital where I first saw my specialist - because I went under private treatment and had it done under his own surgery and also had it done in a hospital that could cater better for the operation itself.
Normally after you have arrived at the hospital you will have an x-ray so they can see exactly what is going on in your spinal area and that will be given to your consultant.  After this you may be taken to have a further MRI scan or at this point is where you will be treated for your individual needs...

So that's it for this blog, I hope you found it useful and I will write back for you guys in the next one!

Stay aware, 

Emilie xoxo