Scoliosis Therapy
Donation protected
Hello friends and family,
Scoliosis greatly diminishes my quality of life, and holds me back from the things I want to achieve. I have located physical therapist who teaches the Scroth method (a promising scoliosis-specific therapy) at the University of Arkansas. She has offered me a week of intensive physical therapy over Spring Break. This is an amazing opportunity for me to learn how to help myself. Unfortunately, it still costs. I'll miss a whole week of work, and I'll need help covering boarding and food costs while in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I'm reaching out to my friends and family in the hopes that you can contribute just a little to make this possible for me. Any bit that you can give will help. Thank you.
I was first diagnosed with scoliosis when I was about 11. Everybody has one leg shorter than the other, but mine is offset by a whole centimeter. The doctor didn't attempt to treat it, but opted to"wait and see." Waiting has left me with a 19 and 24 degree curvature. My scoliosis holds me back in a lot of ways (pun intended). I've thrown my back out several times since I was 19. Almost everyday, I have a tightness in pain somewhere be it my neck, upper, or lower back. Holding correct posture for me isn't just challenging, it's painful. Exercise tends to make it worse. I also get winded easily, especially when I do core exercises, which is frustrating, because core muscles are the most important to exercise in dealing with scoliosis. Basically, I'm dealing with chronic pain syndrome, which leads to chronic fatigue, and some research suggests chronic anxiety.
I've been to several chiropractors over the years, but their methods, costly as they are, are unhelpful. After every adjustment my muscles ache, because they've been displaced, they continue to ache as my bones shift back into their previous positions. After experience and research, I've learned that any therapy that ignores musculature is never going to be effective. There are 7 major schools of therapy specifically designed with scoliosis. Much like yoga, they rely on breathing, stretching, and resistance training in order to strengthen the right muscles to help improve alignment. The back is a complex web of bones and muscles, so it takes a lot of expert knowledge and an understanding of scoliosis to treat it. One particularly promising therapy is the Scroth method. However, there are no local therapists or clinics which know of or use this kind of therapy.
As much as my back hurts now, I'm worried about what's going to happen in the future. Scoliosis inevitably leads to disc degeneration and arthritis. If I have the back of a 50 year-old now, I shudder to think what it will be like when I'm 50. I may be looking at invasive surgery in my not-so-distant future, but I'd like to avoid that possibility at all costs as spinal surgeries have a tendency to make things worse rather than better.
Scoliosis greatly diminishes my quality of life, and holds me back from the things I want to achieve. I have located physical therapist who teaches the Scroth method (a promising scoliosis-specific therapy) at the University of Arkansas. She has offered me a week of intensive physical therapy over Spring Break. This is an amazing opportunity for me to learn how to help myself. Unfortunately, it still costs. I'll miss a whole week of work, and I'll need help covering boarding and food costs while in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I'm reaching out to my friends and family in the hopes that you can contribute just a little to make this possible for me. Any bit that you can give will help. Thank you.
I was first diagnosed with scoliosis when I was about 11. Everybody has one leg shorter than the other, but mine is offset by a whole centimeter. The doctor didn't attempt to treat it, but opted to"wait and see." Waiting has left me with a 19 and 24 degree curvature. My scoliosis holds me back in a lot of ways (pun intended). I've thrown my back out several times since I was 19. Almost everyday, I have a tightness in pain somewhere be it my neck, upper, or lower back. Holding correct posture for me isn't just challenging, it's painful. Exercise tends to make it worse. I also get winded easily, especially when I do core exercises, which is frustrating, because core muscles are the most important to exercise in dealing with scoliosis. Basically, I'm dealing with chronic pain syndrome, which leads to chronic fatigue, and some research suggests chronic anxiety.
I've been to several chiropractors over the years, but their methods, costly as they are, are unhelpful. After every adjustment my muscles ache, because they've been displaced, they continue to ache as my bones shift back into their previous positions. After experience and research, I've learned that any therapy that ignores musculature is never going to be effective. There are 7 major schools of therapy specifically designed with scoliosis. Much like yoga, they rely on breathing, stretching, and resistance training in order to strengthen the right muscles to help improve alignment. The back is a complex web of bones and muscles, so it takes a lot of expert knowledge and an understanding of scoliosis to treat it. One particularly promising therapy is the Scroth method. However, there are no local therapists or clinics which know of or use this kind of therapy.
As much as my back hurts now, I'm worried about what's going to happen in the future. Scoliosis inevitably leads to disc degeneration and arthritis. If I have the back of a 50 year-old now, I shudder to think what it will be like when I'm 50. I may be looking at invasive surgery in my not-so-distant future, but I'd like to avoid that possibility at all costs as spinal surgeries have a tendency to make things worse rather than better.
Organizer
Anna Blankenship
Organizer
Wichita, KS