MS and scoliosis

[ajmarsh]

I've just learned that my scoliosis (since teen years) has gotten dramatically worse recently. Have been helped by regular chiroractic care all these years just so I could avoid bracing and surgery. My MS (dx in 1991) has been quite mild but with decreased muscle endurance in walking over the past 5 years. I will be meeting with an orthopedic surgeon within a month or two. Was wondering if anyone else with MS has scoliosis. I cannot find any literature on the topic.
Just trying to get all the information I can so I am prepared for what may, or is, to come. I am very active and work full time.
Thanks

[nkh18]

I developed Scoliosis after 25 years of MS. It's from constantly leaning to my left due to weak back/core muscles.
Surgery would not correct my problem. I'm going to ask my neurologist for a doctor referral to see what could be done. I have a lot of pain when I sit for too long. Physical therapy helps some. Good luck to you.

[Liz L.]

Scoliosis came first

I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was a teenager and had a spinal fusion in 1960. The MS came much later. I have RRMS. I do Pilates with a private teacher three times a week, and I love it. We have to make compensations, primarily because of the scoliosis, I think. Sometimes, I don't know whether problems with weakness are because of one or the other. I do know, however, that my lower back aches are much better now. So I must be doing something right. I would focus as much as possible on exercise. I highly recommend Pilates, but with the right teacher. Also, I do Pilates with machines, which I find more helpful than the mat/ball combination. I think I work harder.

Liz

[kebsa]

i was diagnosed with a moderate scoliosis when i was a teen as well- mine is basically thoracic but with a lumbar curve as a compensatory curve. Mine had been stable. I am wheelchair dependant now days, i am an amputee and that tends to make your pelvis tilt in an odd lop sided way when you sit so i don't know if this has had an effect. But i also fell a couple of yrs back and sustained a couple of crush fractures to my lumbar spine leading to severechronic back pain.

my right shoulder has always been a little higher than the left due to the thoracic curve but was not very noticable but thesedays i have noticed in photo's and when sitting infront of the mirrors having my hair done, that my right shoulder is now considerabley higher than the left and if i adjust myself so that i look stright in a mirror, then it feels like i am leaning heavily!! Only recently my OT noticed the height difference between my shoulders for the first time. in my case she thinks it may be a combination of the effects of being an amputee who is wheelcahir dependant as well as muscle weakness from the MS. She has talked of referring me to the seating unit to look at perhaps adjusting the seating my wheelchair to help prevent things from worsening

[JerryD]

I was doing chiropractic and it seemed to help with back pain. I never heard of scoliosis as it related to my health. I was dx'd with MS in 2009 and a year after that, I needed to have surgery on my Lumbar spine. I mean, I was in severe pain. After the surgery to correct a bulging disk, that is the first time I ever heard a doctor say that I had scoliosis. I can't believe that at 53 years old, a medical doctor finally recognized that I had this problem.

[Shaky]

I developed Scoliosis after 25 years of MS. It's from constantly leaning to my left due to weak back/core muscles.
Surgery would not correct my problem. I'm going to ask my neurologist for a doctor referral to see what could be done. I have a lot of pain when I sit for too long. Physical therapy helps some. Good luck to you.

I, too, developed scoliosis several years after the MS diagnosis. M¥ MS is being actively treated, but both my neurologist and PCP acknowledge the scoliosis if I mention it but otherwise ignore it. I made a special trip to my PCP's clinic to request PT for the scoliosis. I did receive a referral to a local therapist, but he only gave me some back strengthening exercises, the same as he gave all other back patients. The scoliosis causes much more pain than the MS.

[nkh18]

Shaky, my PT works with people with neurological problems, so works with some MS patients. She shows me specific exercises and stretches that help with my scoliois as much as they can. Maybe you can find a different PT who will be more helpful.

[Shaky]

I was doing chiropractic and it seemed to help with back pain. I never heard of scoliosis as it related to my health. I was dx'd with MS in 2009 and a year after that, I needed to have surgery on my Lumbar spine. I mean, I was in severe pain. After the surgery to correct a bulging disk, that is the first time I ever heard a doctor say that I had scoliosis. I can't believe that at 53 years old, a medical doctor finally recognized that I had this problem.

53 is young. My MS was not diagnosed until I was 66, and it was another 10 years before I was diagnosed with scoliosis. I'm sure that I had both conditions many years prior to diagnosis.

[marcus8560]

scolliiousis and MS who knew!?

Hi there fellow MS ers. I was diagnosed in 08 but had signs in 07. I am a carpenter that got tired and felt weak after long hard carries. I felt I had to tough it out to keep my job. The result was a big C shape stature. After reading the threads it helped me realize how I got this body shape. At first I felt like a deformed wimp, but now its just anger that I feel. I invert every day for 30 minutes. It helps but doesnt cure it. But I feel better knowing a little more to how and why I got scoliosis.

[graybird]

I've had severe scoliosis since grade school.Had a brace from hip to neck for years.
In fact several years later it was during an exam of a MRI of a thorasic spine image they found my first lesion and
TA DA came the unexpected news of my MS

D