Like the story at the start of this forum, I too was about late sixteen, early seventeen, when I experienced back pain for the first time. The pain was in my lower back, running down my right leg into my right foot.
I was referred to a specialist, who treated me with a plaster jacket for one year and that had no success. I was not told that I had a scoliosis and wondered why I was being asked to go into a plaster jacket. In 1960, patients were not encouraged to ask questions, especially young patients.
After the plaster cast failed, I was offered no further help and became a chronic case of permanent sciatica. My left hip became larger and gave me chronic pain and the pain switched from left side to right side at its whim.
I have had no relief after two surgeries and was told only last year by a doctor in the Philippines that I had developed scoliosis at the early age of sixteen or seventeen, hence the plaster jacket.
I am now age 66 and I have lived with this hell for these many years.
- Michael