Scoliosis Blog

Just over 2 years ago I commenced this blog documenting what I termed was a "ramble" into the world of Scoliosis.  I now find myself sitting in the adjacent hotel room in Stevens Point, Wisconsin,  writing once again.  I cannot even think how many patients I have seen since those first days or how my life and work has been impacted by  the amazing experiences I have been privileged to share since those early days.

I ended off last blog voicing my concern about the weather.  It has been cold and there is a reasonable amount of snow on the ground.  Dr Len Markman whose wife (Dr Leslie Markman) I met at the last course has taken me snow shoeing, sledding, ice skating and hopefully tomorrow- cross country skiing.  They are an amazing couple.  Although its been cold, one of the patients on our course, who is a remarkable young man from Alaska has been joking around saying how mild the weather is. Its amusing to see the therapists in multi layer clothing and Devin in his shorts and bare chest.  Devin, whom I shall write about later, has a double curve of which his major curve is approaching 60 degrees. He lives life to the full and has been telling me about his commercial fishing experiences in Alaska; ala- deadliest catch type  stuff.

It was an interesting type of treatment course. We had  10 physio's from around  the USA (including  Rebecca Harding and myself) and 10 patients of various ages and cobb angles.  The smallest curve we saw was just under 30 degrees and the larges curve just under 60 degrees.  Most of the kids had or were being braced but some had not been.  We spent  the week rotating through treating each patient  in different techniques under the watchful eye of Dr Rigo. He would explain a concept and we would try to refine the technique on our  patients.   I am glad to say that there was nothing massively new but we were able to refine our techniques and identify the nuances of the method.

One of the the great aspects was seeing all the patients interact together and some great friendships blossom.  I also met up with Rachel who is a group leader at http://www.curvygirlsscoliosis.com/ .

It was interesting working with all the other physio's and the in-depth discussions with Dr Rigo who would often remark that his clinic had tried a "particular direction" of treatment 30 years ago and it had failed.  

The next stop is SOSORT 2012 in Milan following which I will hopefully attend the next level SEAS course.