Hello readers! This is my first post, and I want to sharing
my experience to you. This isn't an exciting experience, but this experience
has taught me a lot about the thing called "Patience". So, I wanna
make a confession here. Uhm, that I have scoliosis. Apa sih scoliosis? FYI,
Skoliosis itu adalah kelainan pada rangka tubuh yang berupa kelengkungan tulang
belakang. Kebanyakan kasus skoliosis merupakan idiofatik atau tidak
diketahui penyebabnya (source: wikipedia).
Kelengkungan tulang belakang sendiri ada yg berbentuk C atau
S. As for me it's S shaped :(
This is how it looks like : Double major scoliosis (Lumbar
30° and Thoracic 60°)
It belongs to severe scoliosis problem
I went to R.S Siaga to got an X-Ray check in June, to be
honest I was really shocked to see what my spine really looks like, I feel
scared because the doctor told me to do the spinal fusion (surgery) immediately.
And the doc said that my spine will get worse kalo nggak segera dioperasi....
Abis dari dokter I became so quiet, didn't wanna talk much
cz I feel really sad and confuse at the same time. I had so many thoughts
during past few months and couldn't really sleep well at night. Well, aside
from my gloomy feelings, my back hurts a lot at night that kept me awake..
I did googling about scoliosis whenever I couldn't sleep and it's just
don't help much?
Speaking about spinal fusion, I'd willing to do the surgery
tho. But... but my mom disagrees! She said it's too risky, well I guess she's
right. Operasi skoliosis itu adalah major surgery, dan punggung kita bakal
dibelah (yes, you'll get a line scar along ur back) terus tulang belakang kita
dipasang pen (as i know it's made from titanium). Abis operasi juga kita harus
belajar duduk dan jalan lagi, semacam fisioterapi gitu. And it takes
approximately over 3 months. Belum lagi, kalo amit-amit operasinya gagal.....
resiko terparah bisa sampai lumpuh.... (sounds scary enuff?) And oh, harga
operasinya juga cukup mahal, bisa sampai ratusan juta. Jadi, ya karena
alasan itulah maybe I don't do the spinal fusion eventho I've seen a lot of
people did it and they're fine post op. Maybe I'll do it later when I'm ready.
One thing you should know about scoliosis, bahwa spine yg
udah bengkok karena scolisosi tidak mungkin bisa lurus sempurna lagi even udah
operasi. Jadi operasi itu untuk mengurangi derajat kelengkungannya aja, misal,
awalnya skoliosis 70° setelah operasi bisa berkurang jadi jadi 10° or
lesser. Tapi itu lumayan pake banget lah! I can say with
60° curve, you have no idea how much it hurts and uncomfortable
living with curvy spine like this.... (whining). Actually I'm not going
to make a list of complain here but I really wanna tell you how does it feel
like,
- When I woke up in the morning, my spine is sooo stiff that I have to bend my body to the side or do some stretching before litelally get out of bed (And it's cracking! A lot of crack!)
- When I stood up in bus, rasanya pegal banget but i can hold it *proud*
- When I stood up (again) in bus, but this time I leaned on the window. Jadi kalo naik kopaja ac kadang2 suka berdiri nyenderan ke jendelanya itu dan I can't tell you how much my lumbar hurts. Lumbar itu spine bagian bawah yg dekat pelvis. This time I couldn't hold it... cz it hurts like hell
- I can't run, or gym or do pekerjaan berat. It's not good for my scoliosis. Doctor said
et cetera cz I don't wanna look like a moaning person ;P
Are you still keep reading? Good, go on cz I wanna tell you
about pilates.What and why pilates?? And how's it related to scoliosis??? So I
did pilates for 9 months (sekarang vakum dulu) di BodyMind Inc Pilates studio
in Bangka Kemang. With my lovely tutor mbak Vita Natassa, she's really nice
person and she taught me patiently how to do some pilates movements and really
took care of my back.
Well, before I went to doctor I got a feeling that something
went wrong w/ my spine already, karena pas aku membungkuk, punggung sebelah
kanan lebih naik dari yg kiri.
Seperti gambar di atas
Dan di bagian perut kiri agak masuk ke dalam which created
semacam cekungan gitu. Nah, saat itu aku belum 'ngeh' kalo itu skoliosis.....
jadinya ya I didn't take it seriously. Jadi.. my mom one day told me to go to
pilates class to fix my back position (We thought it was that easy, benerin
tulang punggung yg bengkok2 ke pilates doang).
Intinya, I didn't know apakah ada perubahan sama tulang
punggungku selama 9 bulan pilates. Karena aku baru X-ray pas 4 hari lagi paket
pilates abis (I knew I'm stupid). Makanya, aku sama sekali gabisa bedain
keadaan tulang punggung sebelum dan sesudah pilates. Tapi secara fisik I didn't
see any changes sih di tulang punggung. TAPI, don't get me wrong dulu.... in
the end I become in LOVE with Pilates! Karena abis pilates badan berasa segeeer
banget, terus berasa energic, fresh dan ya semangat aja gitu nggak gampang
capek dan ga gampang sakit juga. Daya tahan tubuh meningkat, terus jadi semakin
sehat karena I always eat healthy foods while I was doing Pilates routine. As
bonus, my body get more toned and fit. Dan yang paling penting, tulang
punggung ini nggak begitu sakit dan pegal lagi, walaupun masih bengkok sana
sini.
Yeah, scoliosis is something that I never thought would
happen to me.. but in fact here it is now in my body. And I've to accept it cz
that's what Allah has destined to me. From scoliosis I learned how to be
patient and always pray to Allah, and being grateful cz I have mom that is
taking care of me really well :') I'll see the therapist in Bandung maybe next
year (cz this year I'm so busy with college). I'll go to Chironesia, it's kind
of chiropractic, tapi metodenya macam2, ga cuma chiropractic aja. Dan dari
testimony temen, derajat skoliosis nya berkurang sampe 11 setelah beberapa
bulan terapi di sana. I hope that I'll get rid of my severe scoliosis degree
there. And i think I'll use braces too. So let's see what would happen next
year!
Finally, some lovable quotes for scolioser out there,
"We're not broken, just bent" :') Don't lose hope, keep fighting the
battle and always have faith, because scoliosis will not define us!
Well, because I'm in a good mood currently, i'll give
a bonus picture tentang signs of scoliosis. So you can check on your own body
or people around you, karena penting bgt buat siapa aja untuk tau apakah dia
punya skoliosis atau nggak, lakukan deteksi dini supaya penanganannya pun bisa
segera :)
...Until my next post!
