Living with scoliosis can be an ordeal even in the best circumstances, but managing a spinal curve while simultaneously going through puberty and striving to stay on top of schoolwork is a challenging feat indeed. Unfortunately, since most cases of idiopathic scoliosis develop during adolescence, many young people are forced to learn how to live with scoliosis just as they’re also trying to navigate the general turbulence that tends to accompany one’s teenage years.

Here at the Scoliosis SOS Clinic, we’ve helped countless teenagers and pre-teens to manage their scoliosis and achieve a higher quality of life. Today, we’d like to share the story of a young woman from Cardiff named Louiselle, who came to our clinic for treatment around ten years ago. Back then, Louiselle was an intelligent, high-achieving 14-year-old girl who was suffering enormously due to her dramatically curved spine.

Photo of Louiselle by David Hurst (originally published in the Western Mail, 10 September 2007)

Louiselle’s scoliosis first began to assert itself when she was just 9 years old. Unfortunately, doctors misdiagnosed her early symptoms, dismissing her pains as ‘growing pains’ and incorrectly attributing her compromised breathing to asthma. When Louiselle hit puberty, things got even worse: she experienced heavy, painful menstruation and a dramatic reduction in her ability to take part in activities such as swimming and running. She was eventually diagnosed with scoliosis when she visited the doctor for a minor chest infection, but this diagnosis sadly did not signal the end of Louiselle’s suffering.

At the age of 14, Louiselle was admitted to hospital, where an X-ray revealed the true severity of her spinal curve:

Soon afterwards, she was told that the best course of action would be to wait for another 6 months, then go back to the hospital for a surgical procedure that would involve the removal of several ribs and the insertion of metal rods into her spine. This is a terrifying prospect for anyone, let alone a 14-year-old, but Louiselle was not offered any alternative.

As time passed, Lousielle’s severe abdominal pain continued to worsen. She became addicted to painkillers, and was bullied in school for her increasing reliance on medication. To make matters even more desperate, medical professionals often dismissed her symptoms entirely, suggesting that she was simply ‘making a fuss’. At one point, Louiselle was referred to a psychologist in the hope that this would help her to overcome her ‘imaginary’ pain.

And then, one day, a glimmer of light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Louiselle’s mother was watching BBC Breakfast one morning when she witnessed this interview with Erika Maude, founder of the Scoliosis SOS Clinic:

Not long after that, Louiselle and her mum arrived at our clinic, which at the time was located in Suffolk. Lousielle was desperately hoping that our exercise-based treatment would help to relieve her suffering and enable her to live well without the need for surgical intervention; not only was the pain practically unbearable at this point, she was also missing a lot of school time (and just before her GCSEs!) in order to get treated.

Fortunately, this last-ditch attempt to beat scoliosis was not in vain. Here is what Louiselle looked like before and after her 4-week course at the Scoliosis SOS Clinic:

Here’s what Louiselle had to say after completing her scoliosis treatment course:

“Scoliosis SOS were able to explain all my symptoms. They could sympathise with me, and I really felt I was around people who could related to my experiences! After my trip to the Clinic, my legs now feel like they’re the same length. I am walking straighter and taller, and – importantly – I don’t feel like the freak that the surgeons made me feel like before. The way I was seeing myself was that image of a twisted spine: completely wrong.”

One foreign country from which we frequently receive enquiries is Canada, with many Canadian scoliosis sufferers making the transatlantic journey to our London clinic each year. (That’s London, England not London, Ontario!)

If you often read about scoliosis online then you may have come across a blog called Twisted Sister. This blog is written by a woman named Jennifer from Vancouver, and it details her experiences as a scoliosis sufferer and her quest to get treated and overcome the symptoms of her spinal condition.

Jennifer is actually one of the many Canadian people we have treated here at the Scoliosis SOS Clinic. She first came to us in 2013 after reading about us online, and she blogged about her treatment course while she was staying in London (for instance, you can read about her first day at the clinic here).

Last year, Jennifer returned to the Scoliosis SOS Clinic and recorded this short video interview with us:

Canada to England is a long journey, but as we feel Jennifer would testify, it can be a very worthwhile trip indeed. Non-surgical scoliosis treatment remains outside the mainstream in Canada, and finding an effective alternative to surgery within the country’s borders can be difficult.

Our treatment programme, the ScolioGold method, is proven effective; as our research has shown, it can visibly reduce a scoliosis patient’s Cobb angle measurement, as well as providing pain relief and improving flexibility and self-image.

Jessie Bowen, a 23-year-old girl from North Canada, was another scoliosis sufferer who came to us from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. You can read her story in full here, but to demonstrate just how life-changing our treatment courses can be, we’d just like to share a short excerpt from her testimonial now:

If you live in Canada – or anywhere else in the world – and you would like to find out more about the non-surgical scoliosis treatment courses we deliver here in London, please contact us today. We will be happy to answer any questions you have, and we can even conduct a full consultation with you via Skype or telephone call.

Scoliosis is relatively uncommon amongst young children. In most cases of scoliosis, the patient’s spinal curve doesn’t develop until adolescence, and so the majority of the people we treat here at the Scoliosis SOS Clinic are at least old enough to be in secondary school.

However, that’s not to say we haven’t welcomed our share of younger patients to the Clinic – in fact, we’ve treated scoliosis in children as young as 4!

One of the most difficult things about treating scoliosis in young children is judging whether or not any treatment is even required. If the child is still growing, there is a chance that their spinal curve will straighten itself out over time; however, it’s also possible that the curve will progress (grow more severe), and this in turn can affect the development of other parts of the patient’s body, including vital internal organs.

For this reason, observation is absolutely crucial when treating a young scoliosis sufferer. It’s very important to know whether the curve is progressing, improving, or simply staying the same, as this will determine the most appropriate course of action. Best practice is to take regular X-rays and monitor the patient’s condition for a time before deciding what treatment – if any – is required.

The treatment courses we deliver are somewhat different for younger patients, but the key principles remain the same: instead of correcting the spine’s curve using surgical methods or a scoliosis brace, we achieve huge improvements via an exercise-based treatment programme. Our chartered physiotherapists use a range of therapeutic techniques (including those listed here) to:

• Reduce the patient’s Cobb angle
• Improve posture and muscle strength
• Increase mobility
• Relieve pain
• Enhance the patient’s quality of life

 

I experience a lot of back pain – does this mean I have scoliosis?

 

 

With this in mind, it should come as no surprise to discover that many celebrities and public figures are affected by this condition. We’ve even treated some of them here at the Scoliosis SOS Clinic, including EastEnders actress Rita Simons:

 

Jamaican sprinter Usain St. Leo Bolt has won six Olympic gold medals to date, and with the 2016 Games taking place in Brazil this summer, one suspects he’ll be adding to that tally very soon. Bolt has said that his curved spine “really hampered” his early career, but obviously the condition has done very little to slow him down more recently!

 

Here’s what Bolt had to say when asked about his scoliosis in a 2011 interview with ESPN:

 

Sarah Michelle Gellar – best known for her leading role in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series – grew up with scoliosis, and she still has trouble with the condition today. According to this Daily Mail article, Gellar finds that “working out on the treadmill and Pilates” both help her to deal with her spinal curvature.

 

Kurt Cobain was the guitarist and lead singer of grunge band Nirvana, who formed in 1987 and achieved international fame in the years leading up to Cobain’s tragic death by suicide in 1994. Cobain seemingly suffered from pain throughout his lifetime – here is an excerpt from an interview that the troubled frontman gave in 1993 (the interview can be read in its entirety here):

 

 

Liza Minnelli is the daughter of Hollywood star Judy Garland, and she has had a hugely successful acting career in her own right, appearing in films like Cabaret (for which she won an Oscar) and TV shows like Arrested Development. Here, in her own words, is how Minelli found out about her scoliosis:

 

“I didn’t realise I had anything wrong with my back until…I guess it was around the time of [1969 movie] The Sterile Cuckoo that Fred [Karlin, composer] said, ‘Come on, somebody’s imitating you. Let’s go see her.’ So we go down to one of those places that used to be in the Village and we sit down and I’m all excited and this girl comes on and she goes like this: [walks with twisted, uneven shoulders]

• Liza Minnelli photo: public domain (view original)
• Usain Bolt photo: Augustas Didžgalvis (view original)
• Sarah Michelle Gellar photo: vagueonthehow (view original)