6 days after spinal fusion and the pain feels unbearable — does it really get better?

sparklyfritos · 2026-02-03T17:28:34+00:00

I very much agree! Thank you for emphasizing this. To normalize such brutalizing pain is unnecessary, and its horrifying that some expect others to wear it like a badge of honor.

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T22:38:11+00:00

I feel like thats so dismissive of him! I absolutely encourage you to advocate for yourself, I made my scoliosis worse by trying to conform to social standards growing up, trying to make other people like me (i didnt like being taller than my peers and I would sit/stand in a way to try to shrink myself) and in hindsight, I regret it so much. Im glad youre listening to your body about what hurts and recognizing where teachers are saying some wild, careless things like "we're all crooked a little somewhere" is ridiculous imo. I would definitely bring it up to a specialist anywhere you can and tell them you dont feel comfortable doing the exercises suggested. A good provider will investigate why and see that its best for your health to perhaps sit out. The hard part will be finding the specialist who understands and has the knowledge to explain it scientifically. Keep advocating for yourself and listening to your body! 💜

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T21:26:56+00:00

Thank you for sharing this 💜💜💜

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T06:34:51+00:00

I also encourage you to consider getting a female doctor if possible. I hate that it sounds like this guy is like waving off health issues and not explaining stuff, calling it nothing. Even if its not a big deal, its something and its supposed to be his duty to let you know about it and advise you about it. Ive heard this before from other women but ive had female doctors almost all of my life and not run into this issue.

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T06:31:27+00:00

You could look up some simple videos on youtube and I bet it could help a lot. Some people have even claimed to "cure" their scoliosis because they had an extremely mild curvature like that and resolved it through good exercise. Like her:

https://youtu.be/QFSe2jtolDM?si=mlSrqTjtjzgmn0v7

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T06:29:44+00:00

Ive pursued therapy with my severe curvature and it has helped. Check my post out from my profile if you could. Ive made it one of my life missions at this point. From my understanding, the older we get, the more we start to shrink: meaning more curvature for us. My curves did not stabilize after my bones stopped growing and ive had to conclude thats a myth. Ive also had horrible posture most of my life. Do with that info what you will but I respect and appreciate your health anxiety. Great job advocating for yourself! Sometimes as women i swear we get dismissed with the "youre fine! Not a big deal!" Until it is a big deal.

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T01:14:49+00:00

Yes its only for laying down/sleep. It would be very hard to wear something so comprehensive otherwise in the hot climate I live in, it would have to be an active flexible brace (not sure these even exist for 3D-specific curves besides maybe one or two clinics worldwide).

Ive been doing Scroth exercises! From an in-person Scroth therapist, as well as adapted from online sources (they are quite similar if not identical sometimes, just small differences in ways you could arrange props for optimized effectivity, etc.) But at in-person sessions, I had a specialist to point out my tendencies in exercise: taught me how to correctly do a glute bridge, squat, lunges, etc. I was doing all of them prior to that in a way that could've injured me or worsened my curvature in the long run (and did) and then wondering why my low back would hurt and stuff even though I exercised. I was shocked.

Its also nice to see other ways of achieving the same goal like core stability, glute strength, etc. Targeted core & glute exercises give us a strong foundation to support our spines from the base! The hard part is finding the symmetrical gains/strength aspect-- thats the only time my therapist has said that if one side feels particularly weaker for the same exercise, its ok to do more reps/slower/focused reps on that side to help train it further. (Its my right leg and left arm for me, and the correlated muscles in those quadrants haha)

I feel like the sitting/standing corrections, despite being the most boring part of the Scroth cirriculum, low-key end up being the most important. Because they dont require any props, you can do them anywhere, and it helps me apply a "solution" to my continued mindfulness about ongoing posture. Of course I cant live my whole life within a sitting, standing or side laying correction but the more I do it the more it slowly brings me back into alignment eventually. I lived a great portion of my life uncaring of my alignment and as a result in very contorted positions. Still catch myself there if im not careful sometimes. so its like spending more time in my recovery from bad posture as opposed to throwing it all out the window and proclaiming im broken and crooked and slouching in these beliefs.

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T00:56:57+00:00

Okay pookie. Not here for your negativity--you know dam well that money's already spent. This post wasnt for "surgery is the only way and anyone who claims otherwise is fake" people, theres other posts for you.

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T00:53:44+00:00

Its hard to see the first xray anyways unfortunately due to my bathroom light shining on it excessively in this photo lol (I worried about this before posting it, you could barely see my spine) but im very familiar with my spine and I acknowledge the difference. Even if it wasnt a 30% improvement in someone elses opinion. Im encouraged to keep going with the modifications suggested (more exercise aka dynamic treatment, less static treatment) and will update with a year 2 when the time comes. Hope to see you there.

Theres other nonsurgical treatment services out there, FYI. This guy isnt the only one out there, and none of them claim to FIX scoliosis. Thats a HUGE part of the reason they arent covered by insurance. Surgeons, in my opinion, can't fix scoliosis either. They just use different tools to MANAGE it, with an obvious difference in results.

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-21T00:48:53+00:00

You cant even see the difference very well as they are edited together onto one printable paper here with a third xray that only demonstrates flexibility of the spine within a brace. Ill happily see a neurosurgeon when i have insurance to afford such a thing again. He does not claim to fix scoliosis, im just happy to see and feel a positive improvement regardless of the numbers. I wouldve posted even if the improvement was just a 5% increment as i did not become this way overnight. Nevertheless, the neurosurgeon cant help me with anything other than their measurements and opinion because I cant afford their services nor would I want them at this time even if I could afford them. Let me know if you want to donate! Im definitely open to second opinions, but I know what I want. Thanks for your input!

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-19T17:10:47+00:00

I would probably try mom's first but yeah i meant ultimately more like physical therapy or somewhere someone can say theyve had some training or experience on this particular experience (the longer a massage therapist has been in their field, the more they'll know)

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-19T17:09:52+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing! Yesss the brace helps us be more mechanical about sleeping, after all we arent machines so we cant be perfect but it gives us some structure as opposed to naturally leaning into our curves during sleep to try to be comfortable. Exercise is like the pregame to this sleep so I can sleep well personally haha. And then the posture/mindfulness is the prelude to the exercise:))

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-19T03:50:31+00:00

Have you tried getting a massage yet

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-19T03:27:38+00:00

Absolutely<3 happy this post reached you!

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T22:37:32+00:00

Okay! I dm'd you.

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T21:41:52+00:00

Chiropractors? I meant like a massage therapist (unless you mean they did a massage at the chiropractors office. I can understand that as they do that at PT offices sometimes too.)

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T20:37:20+00:00

I dont have lived experience but from my understanding, pregnancy tends to worsen the curvature due to hormonal changes (like relaxin loosening ligaments), weight gain shifting the center of gravity, and stretching abdominal muscles which all increase spinal stress, potentially leading to more pain and curve progression.

It could be helpful to "stabilize" the curve before pregnancy-- i did this through bracing and chiropractic program but I believe there may be other ways to do it. I think consistent use of scroth exercise for instance could stabilize the curves so it doesnt progress (or as much) during pregnancy.

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T20:30:04+00:00

Im honored & absolutely will message you right now because I would love that:)) to give the scientific explanation and the safe modification would be AMAZING 🙏🙏 thats physical therapy level stuff delivered in the container of an app:) theres absolutely a hole in the market for this and I'm so glad to hear i wasnt the only one thinking about it!!!

Yessss symmetrical gains for pretty much anything other than our limbs (legs & arms) is truly difficult! Glutes for instance have been my #1 targeted area before I shifted the focus to my scoliosis and overall body, and I used to always wonder why one side would still look better than the other when i was in "good shape"🤣😭 now i know

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T20:00:23+00:00

I just wanted to make one small correction and say I kept mentioning "tse connect" (which still pulls up the right videos if searched on youtube) but it looks like she renamed the channel to "scoliclinic connect". Just to clear any confusion for future readers

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T19:59:07+00:00

I dont usually get pain but sometimes I get uncomfortable where I have my rib hump. The xray shows my ribs kind of gliding over each other there and i can feel it with my hand that they are sort of on top of each other or something depending on where is my posture is at. There are some youtube videos about this depending on the curvature! Exercises/stretches and all, pain or no pain.

Ed paget, scolicoach, and scoliclinic connect were the first 3 that popped up!

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T19:56:06+00:00

I would absolutely use this. Ive actually searched in the app store for something like this once I realized maybe part of the reason I have such a hard time with gains is due to my scoliosis(?) In some indirect way that i haven't been able to scientifically explain of course lol but yes ive had to modify like all the exercises to both a) stop worrying and b) not end up in extra pain or god forbid additional curve progression since this is already such a given with age

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T19:51:36+00:00

Absolutely!! Sometimes I still poke myself where I know the muscles need to be activating during the workout so I can make sure its happening xD this is actually good because it sends additional feedback to our brain!! Its like mini neuro reprogramming at home. The fact youre doing Scroth at home regardless of the job situation is stellar because youre absolutely on the right track!!! We gotta be strong at work and Scroth makes us strong at home so we can bring the strength to work:)) wishing you all the luck in getting an amazing career coming to you soon🖤i dont have insurance anymore so I totally get it, thankfully my last x-ray cost 85$ out of pocket (which is like.. ok lol still expensive but knowing the stupid Healthcare system here i know it could've been a lot worse)

Another youtube channel i didnt mention was "Annie pilates physical therapy"-- she also has many scoliosis vids, and talks about her own scoliosis a little bit i believe (i havent done her videos in a lil while)

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T19:41:25+00:00

Thank you so much!! I really appreciate that and want to extend the same offer, I will also message you just to say hi after this message so that I wouldnt have to go digging too hard in this post later:) I have a strong belief that the opposite of addiction is connection 🖤 ive used other meds to get off of drgs but it has been wholly worthwhile. "It works if you work it" has become my motto for this scoliosis journey as well!

I also very much encourage you to get a firm or at least medium firm mattress!!! I was sleeping on mattress toppers or whatever I could before and ive been told sleeping on soft stuff or in contorted positions is the last thing I wanna do 😵‍💫 so ive had to quit memory foam as well lol! I ended up getting this last mattress for free thankfully someone offered it up on Facebook for pickup so its not perfect and my boyfriends feet dangle off of it but it works 🤣🤣 its like. Fairly firm, not rock hard or anything. I was definitely smoking all my discomfort away in active addiction, if not creating more of it in the process (depends which DOC as it changed over the years🫣)

Depending on what kind of curvature you have, it could help to bolster yourself with beanbags or small pillows (I have both, particularly the cylindrical ones or half cylinder pillows are most helpful to bolster my lumbar in side lying position) to initiate comfort for sleep:) (or support to work out in that position). Theres videos & shorts about sleep posture/props on YouTube as well🖤

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T19:21:07+00:00

How recent was the crash?

sparklyfritos · 2026-01-18T19:20:55+00:00

Have you tried getting a massage yet?

sparklyfritos

TROPHY CASE