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Spinal curvature and its effects
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Hitting the ending pose of my synchronized skating team’s program at the 2017 Mozart Cup in Austria, I felt my eyes well up from joy and pride. Crying of happiness is a peculiar oxymoronic phenomenon, one I have so far only experienced through my skating career. Reflecting on my nine-year skating journey from stumbling around at my local rink to this moment - winning my first international competition as a member of the Team USA - the exhaustion disappeared from my limbs and was replaced by exhilaration. As a young, ambitious athlete, my body is my tool, something I can push and train to bolster my performance. Progressing through the ranks, I have become known as a flexibility skater; my bendy spine is my greatest asset, allowing me to perform …show more content…
Suddenly I was facing an irreversible, and inevitably worsening, condition that impacted the majority of my body. I could no longer brush off the strange discomfort of wearing backpacks or sitting for long periods of time; there was something actually wrong with me. After seeing a specialist, it became clear that while my curve did not require immediate attention, it had progressed to the point that surgery to fuse the majority of my spine would be unavoidable in the future. Every time I stepped on the ice during the following five months, all I could imagine was a steel rod fusing my back, ending my flexibility, and along with it, my skating career. The uncertainty of my future has proven to be even more of a mental obstacle than a physical one. While my diagnosis was unpredictable and threw a curve into my identity (literally), I have regained a sense of control over my situation. On late nights when my back muscles ache, I explore the internet to discover the treatment options available to me. I read scholarly articles comparing the effectiveness of posterior vs. anterior instrumentation, watch videos of other girls' stories, and investigate long-term pros and cons of undergoing surgery. I scrutinize various incision techniques, inquire into scar healing, and weigh the probabilities of returning to high-level athletics. While such information cannot
Success is not given, it is earned. Waking up for a 5am skating practice is nobody’s ideal Wednesday morning, especially for a hormonal teenager like myself. However, satisfaction of landing a new jump or learning a new spin does not come from letting our ‘wants’ buyout our dreams. “By the time we’d finished, we were amazed at how much the book had taught us: about ourselves.” I don’t always succeed, nor do I always expect to. Throughout all the morning practices and late night workouts, failure is something I have learned from. I remember giving up on myself countless times after falling on a jump or not turning my edges properly, as if I had ‘writer's-block,’ feeling completely numb. Nevertheless, succeeding was the easy part, it was learning to grow into the 6 year old singing, confident, child again, and defeating the numbness. I have learned, along the way, people are going to try to undercut your success or take credit for your hard work. However, it is the end product that matters. It will be I who knows how to complete a program, or I who knows how to work hard. Staying focused as the athlete I am, not letting people side track me, builds the confidence to know ‘I finished the
In the United States 54 million people have a disability and only 15 percent were born with a disability (Jaeger & Bowman, 2005). If a person lives long enough, it is statistically likely that they will develop some kind of disability in their advancing years (Jaeger & Bowman, 2005). At some point in your life you could have experience a fractured bone, a minor cut, or had some type of surgery. Imagine after some minor injury that you may not even remember and then experiencing a constant pain so agonizing that no amount of pain medication can make you comfortable (Lang & Moskovitz, 2003). Some additional symptoms that you may also experience are severe burning pain, changes in bone and skin, excessive sweating, tissue swelling and extreme sensitivity to touch (Juris, 2005). These symptoms are associated with a disease that is called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) but more recently termed as complex regional pain syndrome, type 1 (CRPS 1) (Juris, 2005). For simplification purposes this disease will be referred to as RSD throughout this paper.
forward. Two months after I had surgery on my meniscus, I went snowboarding and crashed into a tree. My right leg was stuck in my binding and the board twisted and I felt a sharp pain and fell to the ground, but I got up and kept going. After the season was over I went to the doctor and got an MRI scan, it showed that I had torn my ALC.
Sweat plummeting down their faces as they catapult yet another girl into the air; each flyer aiming higher than the last go rounds. Their whole body aches and begs for a moment of rest, but they never surrender to the pain. For the hundredth time, they’ve reviewed their two minute routine and for the hundredth time they tumbled non-stop. Knowing that all this hard-work, had the ability to raise a smile onto the face of someone watching. Knowing that at every game, they can provide the match, to lighten up the mood.
Flexibility- Just like in any other sport or physical activity, flexibility is very important in hockey. Flexibility is the range of motion in a joint and is one of the most important concepts and practices in sports to prevent and recover from an injury. There are two types of flexibility stretches that will benefit a hockey player (forward position): static and PNF.
Tests after tests including MRI’s, X-rays, and experimental procedures were performed to show I had five ruptured disks in the lower lumbar section of my back. Tedious Examination done by a group of doctors concluded I had a crippling disease of the spinal column called spinal stenosis. Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal that causes compression of the spinal cord. (Lohr,1) If this disease was ignored any longer, it would lead to many other problems affecting other areas of my back to help support this weakness. It was an extremely rare case for an athlete my age.
“You need surgery.” Just a few weeks before a national basketball tournament, these words would change my life forever. Basketball is my true passion that is a part of who I am. Unfortunately, I experienced failure at meeting my athletic aspirations, due to an injury. Although my particular injury was out of my control, I constantly felt ashamed that I could not completely fulfill my athletic goals as I had hoped. I felt I had let everyone down who had been there for me and supported me. This injury has also shaped me and changed my perspective on how I see and appreciate certain things.
During the ninth grade, I injured my knee playing soccer. The initial MRI did not show any tears, but the orthapedic surgeon did notice I was weak medially and that my patella was tracking laterally. He sent me to therapy to strengthen the inside of my leg and hopefully pull my kneecap medially. I started going to therapy and I adored my therapist, Kelley. Even though the exercises weren’t always fun or pain free I looked forward to therapy. She made things fun, and since I was interested in the field, would explain why I was doing certain exercises compared to others. The pain didn’t go away and she worked to help figure ...
The concept that pain means injury or damage is deeply embedded in the American consciousness. “I have never seen a patient with pain in the neck, shoulders, back or buttocks who didn’t believe that the pain was due to an injury, a “hurt” brought on by some physical activity.” Says Dr. John E. Sarno, M.D. “The pain started after I lifted my little girl” or “Ten years ago I was involved in a hit- from- behind auto accident and I have had recurrent back pain ever since.” Of course, if the pain starts while one is engaged in a physical activity it’s difficult not to attribute the pain to the activity. “But this pervasive concept of the vulnerability of the back, of ease of injury, is nothing less than a medical catastrophe for the American public, which now has an army of semidisabled men and women whose lives are significantly restricted by the fear of doing further damage or bringing on the dreaded pain again” (qtd. in “Healing Back Pain”). With good intentions, this idea has been encouraged by the medical profession and other healers for years. It has been assumed that neck, shoulder, back and buttock pain is due to injury or disease of the spine and associated structures and ligaments surrounding these structures- without scientific validation of these diagnostic concepts. “On the other hand,” States Dr. Sarno, “I have had gratifying success in the treatment of these disorders for seventeen years based on a very different diagnosis. It has been my observation that the majority of these pain syndromes are the result of a condition in the muscles, nerves, tendons and ligaments brought on by tension.”
Six months ago, I walked through the door of the Virginia Mason Hospital with a smile on my face and no clue that my world was about to change forever. I had hip pain for almost 4 years and my father, Robert Shaw, accompanied me into the hospital to get it checked out. We checked in and the lady at the counter spoke to us saying, “Head up to the 6th floor and then walk down to the Lindeman Pavilion”. We walked over to the overcrowded elevators and crammed ourselves in and waited. Once we got to the 6th floor we exited and checked in at the Lindeman Pavilion where I was taken into the radiology lab for x-rays. As the x-rays were being taken I thought to myself, “Why would we be taking x-rays for a muscular and tendon problem”. I realized how strange the whole thing was. “Why do I need a specialist for something so minor. “Won't I just need some physical therapy?” I
Summary: Dan is a 40-year-old man who used to play tennis over 20 years ago. One day he decided to pick up his racket and join his friend Kevin for a match. Dan went all out and played an intense match. A week later Dan experience right shoulder pain but still decided to help Kevin move some heavy furniture out of his house. A few days later Dan’s right shoulder got worse and he went to see an orthopedic specialist. The specialist told him that he probably overstretched a ligament or muscle during his tennis match and that lifting of heavy furniture only aggravated his condition. Afraid that he had torn his rotator cuff, the specialist sent Dan for a MRI. Dan is concerned if he will ever be able to play tennis again.
Three years ago I started having problems with my neck. Come to find out I have a condition called Dystonia. Dystonia, for me, causes muscle constriction in my neck. Through the last three years the doctors still have no idea what to do, and they believe that something else could be contributing to my condition. Dystonia is not supposed to travel to other regions in the body, but one year ago my torso started to curve. I am always uncomfortable, and in pain from this. Even with this, I push myself more in the tasks I can do.
Almost four years ago, getting out of bed started becoming close to impossible. I slowly stopped caring. Headaches haunted my days, following me around like a shadow, never disappearing. I didn’t want to do anything, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t bring myself to try anymore. A pain I cannot describe encased my heart, so tightly that I became numb to it.
Your spine is the center of your body. It’s your universe. It connects your head, torso, arms and legs together, and when your spine is compromised, the rest of your body feels it’s effects. Your back pain doesn’t have to come from a sudden injury. While automobile collisions and contact sports cause immediate injuries, a majority of the pain we treat at my clinic is caused by bad habits that have compounded over many years.
When I returned home from a mission trip in April of 2012 things didn’t seem the same. My body felt as if it had been run over by a herd of elephants. I looked like a balloon with the swelling that had taken over my body. I went to school for a week and then I could not return, I was in so much pain, I didn't know it was possible to feel like this. Little did I know this would be the rest of my life. Months after my mission trip, in the month of August in 2012 I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and Rheumatoid Arthritis, two painful diseases that I will live with for the rest of my life.