Turtle Taekwondo - Scoliosis

Home

Theory Pages

FAQs

Why Turtle Taekwon-Do?

 

Scoliosis

 

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 40 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; well to me they were straight!

My GP referred me to the local hospital and then I was referred to the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. I remember my mum crying when they showed us my x-ray 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, but who doesn’t get 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, in the one hour I was allowed out of the brace and saw a physiotherapist once a month. I 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 a soft seat. 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! Over the years 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, which went over a pulley on the top end of my bed.

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 about 17 (during 1986 or 1987), I was deemed to have stopped growing and all my treatments and monitoring were removed. I was told that I

didn’t need surgery and that now I’d stopped growing, my curve (cobb angle) wouldn’t get any worse.

 

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. The baby sat high up under

my ribs and it felt like my lungs were being crushed! 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 on the pregnancy 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 quickly and I loved it!

 

We had moved house and counties and I became disheartened by my career in the bank so I quit took a few months off and then sought a change of job. I decided to

stay in an office environment (no weekend work!) and I started a part-time filing job. I soon discovered that the huge piles of paper for 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 in a few years I became unable to do my job at all.

 

I had never been told that certain things were bad for scoliotics and can even worsen your condition. I wish I’d been told before I took that job and then struggled on

through the pain month after month, because I don’t like to be beaten and I don’t like to quit. I was actually making my back worse and although I knew my pain was

becoming unbearable, I did not figure out it was the bending and lifting affecting my scoliosis. I remembered my warning from the 90’s that my back could get worse in

my 30’s and assumed that these changes were a result of my age, not what I was doing to myself every day at work!

 

I was moved on to a desk 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 ‘in-operable’, this left me very distressed and without my back up plan and in constant pain. He said that my lumbar spine would

continue to worsen and that I could potentially end up on a wheelchair. He said surgery was not an option, but suggested injections into the spine to relieve the pain.

I was referred to a pain consultant and had MRI scans, which 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, brought on by sitting. The MRI scan 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. I had x-rays showing that my scoliosis had changed very little, but the fact that I could no longer cope

with the pain told me that something had changed, even if it wasn’t my cobb angle!

 

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

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 when 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 was made to feel like I had given up and was not making enough effort to get back to work.

I attended the recent SAUK Scoliosis in Adults meeting in London, 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.

 

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 Physiotherapist 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 Physiotherapist 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 physiotherapist for exercises to help me build up the muscles in my back to help support me, she suggested a couple of

standard exercises. I was 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. It is also a symmetrical activity, which

I have recently learned is vitally important for scoliotics.

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 all around the world!

 

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. Continues below………

 

Xray timeline

 

Click to enlarge

SCOLIOSIS UPDATE 2008!!!!!

I am now 39 and I was on the waiting list for surgery for 10 months. As time went by I became depressed and convinced that this was not the right decision for me. I

am a fighter and I like to sort out my own problems, how could I then just trust a stranger to cut open my back and fuse my entire spine, inserting a metal rod either

side? A few nagging doubts kept popping up:-

If my cobb angle hadn’t actually worsened too much, how would spinal fusion help my pain? If my pain was muscular, how would spinal fusion help my pain?

Why hadn’t the physiotherapist at Oxford been able to give me specific exercises to help my muscular pain? Why was her main concern getting me fit for surgery?

If my spine hadn’t caused me pain before, then how would surgery on the spine and only the spine help with my pain now?

 

These things nagged at me. The surgeon had said that I needed an operation now and that he wouldn’t operate once I reached my 50’s or 60’s. BUT the surgeon at the

scoliosis in adults meeting in London in 2006 had said that a good result of surgery would be if the rods lasted 25 years. Did that mean at 65 I would suddenly need

more surgery? Well certainly not from my surgeon, he doesn’t want to operate on me at that age!

 

Depression is no fun, but life has a way of throwing you a line just when you feel like you’re sinking; and one week in April 2008 I had a series of curious

conversations all telling me to do the same thing!

 

First my mum called to say she’d seen someone on breakfast tv who has opened a clinic to help people with scoliosis, then my Aunty called to say her friend had just been

to a clinic that had been set up to treat scoliosis and that she’d had a great result from the course, then my friend in the NHS called to say she’d been researching

scoliosis for me for a while and finally had a lead on a clinic in Suffolk that treated scoliosis.

 

They were all talking about Scoliosis SOS in Martlesham, near Woodbridge in Suffolk.

 

I went to have an initial consultation in May and they said that they felt they could help me, my next move was to speak to my GP. She agreed that as the prospect of

surgery was affecting me so negatively, this was a good decision for me. My GP phoned Oxford while I was still there and asked them to take my name off of the

surgery waiting list. What a weight that lifted! 10 months on a 12 month waiting list, I call that a close shave.

 

I started an ongoing battle with the NHS to get my treatment funded, but the NHS stance was to ask the surgeon if he thought this treatment would help me and he

pointed out that there are no clinical trials to prove the treatment is beneficial. I am still arguing the case. Curiously I have found many sites that show trials into

scoliosis specific physiotherapy and there is a list after this article for those also trying to find evidence to support this type of treatment.

 

But in the mean time, I borrowed money from Mum, Auntie and Uncle and Granddad and booked my 4 week intensive physiotherapy treatment course for August this

year.

Thank you Mum, Auntie Edna, Uncle Colin and Granddad Crossfield!!!

 

I can’t describe the emotions that came with 4 weeks away from my husband and children. It was over 200 miles from my home, but I had every Saturday at home

before heading back on the Sunday. It wasn’t just the isolation, it was hard physical work. It was, at times excruciatingly painful, even as I could feel the pain changing

from what I had become accustomed to, new pains were arriving. I even ended up becoming involved in a BBC documentary about the clinic for their Inside Out

programme, and so had embarrassment to add to my list of evolving emotions!

 

I can truly say that in 20 days at the clinic, I learned more about scoliosis and its effects, than I had in my previous 25 years since diagnosis.

 

On the NHS and privately mainly over the last 10 years, I had tried many things including Physiotherapy, acupuncture, tens machine, TAMARS, massage, but nothing

helped my pain or stopped my muscles from collapsing.

 

In one month in Suffolk, I have learned how to stretch shortened muscles and strengthen them, learned what happens to the ribs as the spine rotates and learned how to

breathe fully into both lungs, something I didn’t even know I couldn’t do before! Yes I’m still in pain, but the excruciating rib muscle spasms have been reduced

drastically, I’ve had my skin literally pulled off of the bones, where it had become attached along with muscle. I’ve had core muscles that have caused me intense pain

for years stretched and freed up in under 4 weeks. I have been shown what is actually me standing straight and how to correct my posture in the mirror.

 

I won’t go into detail about the 6 hours of exercise every day Monday to Thursday, but I will post below my before and after photos. They pretty much tell story!

 

Zoey 1985image007

As the pictures show, in August 1985 aged 16, you could not really see that there was anything wrong with my back my shoulders are level which is all you can see from

this photo, but in January 2004 when I felt like I was starting to collapse, I got my husband to take the first photo. You can see the creases appearing on the left in

the muscle, which is one of the places I get the most spasms! and on the right. The central photo is my before photo taken on 11th August 08 on day one at the clinic. It

appears I was right and I was collapsing! The photo on the right is after the 4 weeks of treatment. Looks like it helped to me. My pain is reduced and more importantly

I can stand up straight. I still have arthritis in my spine, which seems to have spread over the years, but I can cope with the pain from that as at the moment my

medication helps. Avoiding sitting and asymmetrical activities is truly helping my every day life.

 

In 4 weeks I seem to have undone more than 4 years of degeneration in my posture.

 

The main benefit of the treatment for me was the positive mental attitude I have regained. I can now look after myself better as a result of speaking to people who

care and understand how scoliosis affects me and have showed me what I can do about it! I now have wall bars in my living room and it’s fantastic!

 

This treatment is not a new idea, it has been available on the continent since the 1920’s, I even researched and found before and after photos from the 1900’s.

 

The clinic in Suffolk is all thanks to one young girl who had this treatment in Barcelona and became determined that it should be made available in the UK, so she did

something about it.

 

Visit www.scoliosissos.com for more info on non-surgical treatment for scoliosis.

 

I am determined to carry on in Taekwondo and 10 minutes of long hanging on my wall bars soon stretches out any muscles I aggravate during an hour of training!

 

Best wishes,

 

Zoey

 

Links to research:-

Reports and testimonials:

 

 

ttlogot

 

 

E-mail: zoey@turtletaekwondo.com

 

 

 

 

Website Copyright Zoey Fendt ©2008- no unauthorised copying allowed.