Scheuermann's Disease Support Group

:Hello everyone! I just found out i have this disease in my spine and i am in shock. One good thing out of all this is that i know now why i've had horrible back pain my whole life. Initially i cried and was in disbelief but i'm picking myself up and joining this support group and trying to get to know other people with the same issues. I'm 33 years old and just want to get better. I would like to make some new friends that can understand because my current friends have been amazing but if you don't have this yourself its probably hard to understand what we all are going through. I'd love to hear about some therapy exercises everyone is doing to help them. I read swimming is great so as soon as this rain stops i want to start doing that to help with the pain. I have been taking medication so far and i'm scared of depending on meds but its so hard when your in so much pain. I just want a quick fix to make it go away. If anyone would like to be my friend or have advice (god i feel like i'm in 6th grade and i'm the new kid)i would most appreciate it. I've been a makeup artist for 13 years for MAC and am finding myself having to heal myself,giving up a career i love, etc,etc. Its a lot to take in ...Hope to hear from someone

Hello laila 77

Welcome to the group...my name is Derick and you will soon find out how ur story is so familiar while ur navigating around this site.....we have all exhausted non surgical means for our situation....for the most part lots of us have had or planing on having the surgery as myself i have had the surgery cuz nothing had and will not work....with lots of research as i can prolly guess you have been on the net non stop since u found out ur diagnosis...that Scheuermann's will not fix itself over time(it will continue to get worse). i have tried everything in fact was given a checklist or non surgical means to try before surgery would be considered....u can read bout some of them on my profile.....but i have done injections which some of them were really painful...i have done physical therapy and was a waste of time(only really aggravating my tolerance....and done a TENZ unit...electrical stimulation that could be worn all day, but felt it was only a distraction in my case and only bein used be as a cover up and not taken care of the situation.....you know what... ur case might be very different in so many ways so don't let me discourage you in any way.... you have to have the want to hit this with full force....it jus also may depend on ur degree of curvature of ur spine(mine was 76) and ur MRI where as how may discs r damaged cuz that is causing the main rout cause of pain....but please be of no modesty ask anything to get you further in knowledge...cuz i will tell ya i was totally lost until i found these individuals(now even feels like family)....they really helped me get prepared for what i think was the best decision i have made for ME...thanks for joining...will anticipate for a reply

There really is no quick fix, it would be great if you could just do a few stretches every day and tada! no more pain! But unfortunately it's nowhere near that easy. I've had the surgery too and it's no walk in the park. It takes a good while to recover and everyone loses at least a little flexibility. It's difficult to be flexible when you have rods preventing you from bending. There's a possibility you may have pain the rest of your life even if you do have surgery. In my case my pain is drastically reduced, the only thing I seem to get anymore is light to moderate muscle spasm type pain in my left shoulder blade area. I'm a year and almost 3 months post op btw. Surgery is the only thing that can change your appearance and make your back straight, but there are ways to help with pain management if you don't want to go that route. There doesn't seem to be much success with other treatments from what I've read here but you never know what will work for you until you try. Physical therapy might make you feel slightly better for a few minutes, but for most of us I think it just aggravated the pain. For me PT did absolutely nothing but leave me with a collection agency hounding me for a couple thousand bucks. Tenz units work for some people, meds such as muscle relaxers and the like help a little but that seems kind of hit-or-miss. Heating pads or heating massage pads help. You really just have to sit down with your doctor and discuss your options.. if the doctor that diagnosed you isn't a spine specialist I would seek one out first, because it is -very- difficult finding a doctor knowledgeable enough not only in diagnosing SK but treating it.

i dont know what these folks are talking about, surgery was easy.

Welcome to the group. I was diagnosed when I was 13 yrs old, I'm gonna be 37 yrs old and I have lived with pain always. I'm going to be having surgery this yr hopefully. When I was 1st diagnosed my curvature was 73 degrees at the age of 13 and over the yrs it has gotten much worse. I am at 93 degrees curvature now. No amount of therapy, stretching, bracing has helped me. I have been told by my dr that this condition is hereditary. I got my back from my father, he got it from his mother. My dad also had 2 sisters with it also. I wish you luck in finding a good dr. Nice meeting you.

Robin

Welcome,

We are all here for each other so please don't hesitate about asking anything that you want to know. Remember, we are NOT doctors but I'm pretty sure I can speak for most everyone when I say that we have done are research about Scheuermann's.