I Can Feel It

As predicted, using the cantilever has now become a natural part of my day. Although I haven't yet done five sessions in a day, three to four come easily. In fact, it has become a point of such regularity that I notice a difference on less intense days.

My scoliosis was never grossly disfiguring, but I was noticeably unstraight. My hips weren't straight, I didn't stand straight, I was never on my center of gravity. After my two weeks at the CLEAR Institute I was back over my center of gravity, my hips were more even, and I stood noticeably straighter.

For years my "normal" had been a little crooked and I could feel it moving to a better normal. Sometimes I still slump to crooked, but now I can feel it and quickly revert to straight.

Over the past couple weeks I have noticed on my 3-days I tend to slump more often; especially over multiple 3-days in a row.  This tends to be the case during the week, so on the weekends I am sure to make it up with 4-days.

I know that I probably should be doing more sets, but as is so often unfortunately true: the minimum has become the standard. Nevertheless I can still feel the changes in my body, and hope that with discipline they will remain.

Though as difficult as these past few weeks of summer have been, school starts next week, and that's when the real challenge will begin.

Time Crunch

I've been at home for less than a week and I am already realizing how difficult doing all my exercises is going to be. I have managed to squeeze in three sets a day, one day I did four, but have not yet found the time to do five. And it's still summer.

To be fair, I am playing six hours of sports everyday, leaving at 7 o'clock in the morning and getting home after 10 at night. When I'm home in the afternoon I do 2-3 exercises in between eating, sleeping, stretching, and feeling like dying. Then I do another at 10:30 at night after practices.

Because I have to do the exercises I can't go to friends' houses after practice. I can't go out in the afternoon or out to lunch because I have to get home to do my cantilevers. I'm already resenting it.

My schedule honestly isn't going to get any easier when school starts either. So all I can do is push through and act committed. Fake it til it's real and becomes a natural part of my day.

Day 10: Leaving Oz

Although I've reached the end of the two week intensive back camp, it is really only the beginning.

Earlier in the week someone likened this place to the fictional land of Oz. I, of course, am Dorothy; the other patients in this program are the scarecrow, the tinman, the lion, and Todo, all on our own journey but temporarily together; the wonderful assistants Amy and Michelle share the role of Glenda helping us along the way; finally, Doctor Dovornay is the Wizard of Oz. The man with the seemingly mythical solution of chiropractics for a problem I've faced for so long. We trusted him almost blindly, with only references as support, in his methods that were contradicted by my accomplished medical doctor and orthotist. And still we are trusting his hypotheses as I go home and do exercises the Wizard has prescribed for the next several months.

I took two more x-rays the last day, one in my second cantilever, one as my final out of it. My final was still mid-thirties, showing a stability over the past two weeks. The x-ray in the second cantilever was at 28, so mid-thirties might be the lowest my curve ever gets. This second cantilever was the higher one made last-minute for me on Wednesday, but the x-ray showed that the doctor knew what he was doing in his adjustments. The new cantilever not only pushes to straighten my spine but also rotates the vertebrae back in place by straightening the multifidus muscle, correcting a core problem of scoliosis. The Wizard got it right.

As I leave Oz and go home I'm still on a journey, I have to do exercises on the cantilever 3-5 times a day. In 3 months we will send new x-rays back to the doctor and he will make a new plan for the next few months. There really is no place like home, but my time in Oz will stay with me forever.

Day 9: Lucky

Recently I've taken to writing while on the cantilever, an otherwise long and tedious time. Today I was standing, contemplating what to write about when I heard a dripping noise behind me. I turned to see the girl behind me mid-throwup.

Vomit is one of the many bodily fluids that I can't stand to see, hear, or smell; but there it was, dripping right behind me. Okay, no more vomit talk, but that got me to thinking how in the grand scheme of things, scoliosis really isn't that bad.

It's not a debilitating or life-threatening disease. It's not cancer or leukemia, chromes or any autoimmune deficiency. It's not MS or MD. I don't get sick because of it, my body still functions normally. Other than some discomfort and minor aesthetic abnormalities there is no physical pain or deformities that signify a problem. Considering all of the health problems possible, I am lucky.

I have full function of my mind and full control of my body. Fluids stay in my body, and I am overall healthy person. In the big picture, scoliosis isn't so bad after all.

Days 7 & 8: An Update

Yesterday I had my third set of x-rays in the program. The doctor wanted to see how another week of treatment affected my curvature. The x-ray measured my top curve at 37 degrees, one degree higher than the x-ray the week prior but still better then the original 51 degrees. While this slight increase could come from a measurement error, the doctor was still disappointed that my curve hadn't further improved. Perhaps the cantilever wasn't providing enough leverage.

To test this, I had another x-ray taken today while I was wearing the cantilever. While stressed my curve measured at 30 degrees. The doctor was right in his hypothesis, the stressed leverage wasn't low enough so the following relaxed curve size was higher.

To address this a new cantilever was made for me that increased the fulcrum height from seven to nine inches. This alteration provides more leverage on a greater area of my back and spine to be affected. The angle of the fulcrum was also altered to pinpoint the center of my curvature and have the most effect on it. Furthermore, more weight was added to the cantilever to maximize the effectivity.

Hopefully, the new cantilever will reduce my stressed curve to the mid-twenties, bringing the relaxed curve down too. I have two days left at the CLEAR Institute, so hopefully this last minute fiddling will work!