About TKD

Another major influence in my life has been Scoliosis; it is what actually prompted me to start Taekwondo in my bid to get fit as my Scoliosis started to worsen.

Me, Scoliosis and Taekwon-Do!

My name is Zoey and I am 38 years old, I first saw my curly spine in 1983 when I was 14 years old. My dad had been cutting my hair and complained that I wouldn’t stand with my shoulders straight. My GP referred me to the local hospital and then I was referred to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. I remember my mum crying and I couldn’t understand what she was so upset about!

I must have been a strange teenager, because my spine never bothered me at all, I had no pain from it, well maybe the odd back ache. I was put into a Boston Brace and for the first 12-18months I wore it religiously 23 hours a day.

I did my exercises every day and saw a physio once a month and had my brace changed every 6 months. I was actually pleased to have my brace as I used it as an excuse not to do PE at school. Years later I discovered that my classmates were quite freaked out when I stood up and removed my brace in the middle of a religious studies lesson! It was really digging in that day.

We used to go to Oxford and spend the day having a new brace fitted, then on the way home in the car it would dig in my legs and armpits as I sat down in it for the first time. On arriving home my dad would then get out his tools and peel back the foam and cut away the offending pieces of plastic! Luckily he had always worked in a plastics factory and was a clever man, he always made it fit better.

I was always a bit of a loner, but the few friends I did have never mentioned my back or my brace to me, although I never noticed this at the time. A few months after having my first brace fitted I met my future husband Ian, I used to let him punch me in the stomach as hard as he could, with my brace on of course, what fun!

I slowly wore my brace for shorter periods as it just seemed to get more unbearable each week. I had traction fitted to my bed and I was supposed to sleep with my hips strapped to the bottom of my bed and my head in a halter fitted to a weight.

I probably managed to stay in that thing all night once or twice, always giving up after a few hours, just so I could sleep.

The years went by and at 18 (in 1987), I was deemed to have stopped growing and all my treatments and monitoring were removed.

At 19, I had my first child and it was a couple of years after this that I really started to experience pain, carrying a baby and then a toddler around really took its toll on me. I asked to be referred back to Oxford (in 1990) and learned that my pain would probably increase as I got older and I would possibly need surgery when I reached my 30s, 40s, or 50s. This wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but at least I knew when things got bad I had a possible solution.

At 24 (in 1993) I had my second child, that pregnancy was much more painful, with me sometimes feeling like I couldn’t breathe properly.

I saw my GP who just thought I was making a fuss and sent me away. I did feel and still do that my GP and midwife should have been more aware of the impact of my scoliosis and made the effort to listen to me when I was struggling.

I think I am very lucky that I had my children when I was young, my body coped remarkably well and now sometimes when I visit friends and relatives who have just started their families, I can’t hold their babies at all! I had been advised to stay fit and historically I always cycled everywhere, but aged 30 (in 2000) I decided to start a martial art. Myself, my husband, daughter and son all joined a local Taekwon-do school and we started training twice a week for an hour a time.

I couldn’t do a single press up when I started, but my fitness and strength improved and I loved it!

We had moved house and counties and I became disheartened by my career in the bank so I started a part-time filing job. I soon discovered that the huge piles of filing were far too heavy for me to carry about, and the fact that I was filing at ground height, head height and in between meant that I became unable to do my job at all.

I was moved to a different job and my new GP referred me to Bath, which I thought would be nearer for me than Oxford.

Unfortunately the consultant there was of the opinion that my double curve was ‘inoperable’, this left me very distressed and without my back up plan and in constant pain.

I was referred to a pain consultant and MRI scans showed damage to my facet joints and the onset of arthritis in my lower spine.

By this point I had extreme neck and shoulder pain, which caused severe migraines even making me sick.

The MRI showed no explanation for this, but I am certain it was muscular pain and spasms brought on by my posture which is abnormal due to my spinal formation.

I tried several pain treatments, with only the anti-inflammatory drugs for arthritis that made any difference at all.

I accepted this new consultant’s opinion for a few years, but as things have got worse I pushed my GP to refer me back to Oxford, where I had been told I could go back any time.

I am very grateful for this ‘open appointment’ clause in the report to my GP of 1990, because after a wait I did see my original consultant.

As time has gone by I have found that certain exercises have become more painful and I had to stop doing some things all together.

My training became limited and I took the Instructors course so that I could continue in Taekwon-do by helping others.

My office job has become impossible, as I can no longer sit at a desk, my pain, numbness, aches, muscle spasms have become increasingly unbearable.

I had to stop work altogether when the unbearable pain only took 10 minutes of sitting at my desk before it set in.

In 2006 I went back to Oxford my consultant was very pleased that his forecast had been proven accurate and I now need an operation.

I’ve never been keen on an operation, quite frankly it terrifies me, but I can clearly see that I have no choice and am hoping to have the surgery while I am still young and fit enough to recover from it.

I constantly pushed myself in my work and Taekwon-do often working through great pain and then suffering for a few days, if I did too much.

I have come to accept that I must be careful and keep moving, sitting at a desk is excruciating, but walking around at Taekwon-do and talking to the students actually takes my mind off of my pain, which is constant now.

One of the worst things has been visiting Occupational Health, where I am made to feel like I have given up and am not making enough effort to get back to work.

I attended the recent Scoliosis in Adults meeting and was very satisfied to see that every single person with scoliosis was affected differently.

My Occupational Health doctor had told me that he could not assess me as an individual because he had to consider ‘back problems in the population as a whole’, so this meeting proved to me that there are very few people in the population as a whole, who experience what I experience, so I endured my Occupational Health meetings with the knowledge that the doctor had no idea how my back was affecting me and that he wasn’t there to assess how it affected me!

On my last visit there the doctor was far more knowledgeable and sympathetic, he had been to a seminar where a case study of a fireman with scoliosis had been studied. It was an amazing turn around and I finally felt he understood at least some of the impact that scoliosis has on your life.

My contract at work has been terminated as they were not prepared to wait for me to have the operation and then recover, before I could resume my duties.

I am not upset by this, when you have real problems in your life it really makes you appreciate the value of life and loved ones, and this clearly outweighs beyond measure any loss of income.

Luckily I had only ever worked part-time due to having children, so the loss of income was easier to cope with.

I am determined to keep as active as I can, but do ensure that I use my brain as much as possible to learn and teach Taekwon-do.

I am going back to Oxford this year to tell my consultant that I am having surgery.

I saw the Physio at Oxford, who told me that it is vital for me to be as fit as possible before surgery.

I had stopped training in Taekwon-do for quite a few months, but after discussing the situation with the Physio she assured me that just because I experience pain when I train and afterwards; it did not mean that I was causing more damage.

My pain has increased so much that I asked my physio for exercises to help me build up the muscles in my back to help support me.

I have also been given exercises to try and keep the vertebrae as mobile as possible.

I suffer constant pain, but to maintain my mental health I still help teach Taekwon-do and train when the pain is bearable (within my own personal limits).

Taekwon-do is a good martial art with a mix of techniques and a certain amount of flexibility in what the individual can achieve.

I am still very glad that I started Taekwon-do, it frustrates me when I can’t train, but at least I can still shout commands and maintain my website, which has helped a lot of students.

It is hard not to get depressed at my limitations, especially when I expect so much of myself, but my friends and family are always around me and I can now focus on surgery and more importantly on my recovery and getting back to Taekwon-do.

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E-mail: zoey@turtletaekwondo.com