[Rrae]

Hi
Last week I was getting my Spinal Cord Stimulator implanted in my Lumbar and I heard the surgeon make mention that I have a 'scoliosis' ?! I was awake during the procedure but pretty sedated, so I didn't really comprehend the scope of what he said and it wasn't mentioned during my recovery time.
It seemed to me that he didn't make a big deal out of it, but I'm wondering now if this could have been the culprit to my bilateral leg pain of 5 yrs which led me to finally get the SCS?!

I will be asking the doc more about this at my follow up visit, but wanted to know if anyone could enlighten me about this 'scoliosis'. I've googled it, but found it mostly related to early teens or older adults developing arthritis of the spine.
I'm 46 and have noticed increasing pain in lower back, but the burning leg pain always took center stage, so i didn't pursue the back issue.

[Leesa]

Hi ~ I kinda doubt if it had anything to do with it. The reason I say that is this. I've had spinal problems siince I was about 38 yrs old and have every test in the book. Back then, no mention was made of any scoliosis from the X-rays/Mri's, C-scans, etc. Now that I'm 60, the last MRI I had, they mentioned that I had a minor case of scoliosis!! Now, I don't know if age causes the spine to curve or what. All I know is it's not straight anymore. Go figure.

I know MY problem was that I was born with an extra vertebra, so instead of stopping at L5, I stopped at L6. That always confused the radiologists! LOL. Come to find out from the Neurologists tho that it's quite common ~ don't know why the radiologists didn't know it then! LOL. But that's why my back started falling apart. YOu could have been born with an extra one too, who knows??? By now, it could have fused to the S1, like mine did.

Anyway, scoliosis is just a curvature of the spine. The burning in your legs is caused by the nerves. You should be on a med such as Topamax. Most people are on Neurontin, but that makes you loopy, gain weight, and retain water. Topamaxx doesn't have ANY side effects and works great! ALL my leg burning has stopped and I've been on the same dosage for 8 years. I've had this for 24 years, so this is a treat to have it stopped.

Good luck and God bless. Peace, Lee

[glenntaj]

--glad Topomax works for you, but for many it has many of the same side effects a lot of the other antiepileptics do, such as drowsiness and memory disruption. It also is contraindicated in people with a risk of glaucoma--it tends to raise eye pressures.

It is the only anti-epileptic that tends to suppress appetite, rather than enhance it--a number of people have actually lost weight on it.

It can be an effective med for many neuologic conditions, but be careful of claiming a non-existent side-effect profile.

[aussiemom]

Hi
I've had a 4 level cervical surgery, a botched laminectomy, a messed up lumbar area. A pain doc sent me for PT, who had a PhD in PT, and says oh, scoliosis. Apparently my curve isn't a great big one, nobody is jumping up and down about it. Last year, my local scoli. group brought a young woman here from a formerly Communist country. She had a 135 degree curve. and 2 years to live. After an extremely long surgery 24 hours, 4 months rehab, she is doing fine.

I go to the scoli. group not because I have a mild curve, but we have guest speakers on all types of back pain and problems. We just had an MD last night who spoke on non surgical procedures for back pain. Quite interesting. Most of what he spoke of, I knew from reading here. But the Q&A was wonderful, being able to ask a doc your Q, and get an answer, and learning from it all, with NO office visit, you know?

Most of our group do have scoli. and have had many surgeries, problems and pain from it. I think I'm the only one that hasn't had that as my cause. But it doesn't matter, because pain is pain, and they accept me.

[Rrae]

135 degree curve?! Am i comprehending this correctly?
Wouldn't she look like a pretzel?

Lord, I've got a lot to learn

[pabb]

Originally Posted by Rrae

135 degree curve?! Am i comprehending this correctly?
Wouldn't she look like a pretzel?

Lord, I've got a lot to learn

scoliosis is an S curve....the top in one direction and the bottom the other....
and yes, 135' is one h*ll of a curve!

[aussiemom]

Haven't been here for a few days. Yes, you read that correctly, a 135 degree curve. I saw her X-ray before surgery. If you go to YouTube, its there, on To Tatiana, with love.

[Rrae]

That was very touching....
There are some truly beautiful people in this world....