Scoliosis Blog

Hello again...

The lives of a group of physio's dealing with scoliosis continues to progress. These last few months have been quite busy, and the world, it seems, has gone mad. There is turmoil all over the place and everyone seems to be very unsettled. Quite a long time ago I was chatting to an elderly patient and happened to mention "that the world had gone mad", my patient who had survived WW2 looked up at me and clarified that the world had always been mad and that I was just lucky enough to be born at a time when things were quite stable.  Schroth technique is underpinned by need for a stable base / pelvis.... may we all merit stability in our lives!!

Following our course in Milan in May we were told that we would be given an exam to complete. The exam was duly given and duly completed.Its funny how a few weeks of intensive reading and sleepless nights can be summerised into the one preceeding sentence.  I now have my level 1 certification in SEAS (specific scientific exercises approach to scoliosis exercises) technique. As mentioned previously SEAS seems quite similar to Schroth and the ISICO group in Milan have recently published a very good article in the Spine Journal; (article here). I will try and locate the full article for the blog.  I wonder why Schroth seems so much more popular than SEAS? We are presently using aspects of both techniques in our scoliosis treatments and they are very complimentary.  

Shana-Lee has been seeing some of my old scoliosis patients as well as new patients. We sometimes get caught up with our own treatments and our own patients.  Watching Shana-Lee work is very special. I can see the focus and caring attitude of Beth and Patty (the head physio's at Scoliosis Rehab Inc. who trained Shana-Lee in Wisconsin) coming through in her treatments.

Below is a patients' email about her treatment with Shana-Lee;

I am 47 years old and developed scoliosis in my teens.  I have just learned that i have a four curve scoliosis, the biggest curve being 37 degrees.I have tried everything over the last 30 years to find pain relief and solutions to my scoliosis.  I mean everything.  I have been told all kinds of things, ranging from "it's just a beauty spot, don't worry about it"  to "I'll give you a bikini figure in 6 weeks".  By far the worst thing i have been repeatedly told is "I'm not going to try and straighten you up, i'm just going to make you comfortable".   Embedded in these words is the whole idea that being curved is 'normal' for you, so we won't try and tamper with it.  After 10 hours of Schroth, i realise just how misguided that idea is.I would urge anyone, at any age suffering from scoliosis to learn the Schroth Method.  For the first time in my life i feel that i am in control of my scoliosis.  People are saying to me, "You look different, you look really happy".  I'm not saying it is a picnic.  It's very challenging to go against the patterns of your body, but with a skilled teacher  you can learn.   More than anything it requires a high level of concentration, but every new day my body told me, "this is what i want."  I am so grateful to Shana-Lee for her fantastic care, her encouragement and compassion as well as the sophisticated understanding of the Schroth Method that she was able to impart.

Last week I met up with Charles Smuts who is the chief radiographer at Dalecross Adventist Hospital. I was given an overview of their new EOS x-ray imager.  The details of the machine are here. It is a very impressive machine and although its quite a trip from Bondi Junction I would definitely recommend my patients utilise it.  During our meeting (Jeb joined me), we met up with a scoliosis surgeon by the name of Dr Davor Saravanja (website). We had a very productive talk about what we are trying to do with regard to conservative management and I look forward to working with Dr Saravanja.