3 month Assessment

The Scoliosis SOS clinic wants to assess 'graduates' every 6 months, to measure and monitor progress.  I live almost 8,000km away so getting a check up every 6 months is not going to happen on my bank account.

But the end of my travels through Turkey and Africa (blogs: http://www.turkishdelightful.blogspot.com  and http://www.safarisogoodafrica.blogspot.com ) had me back in London a neat 3 months later, so in I went, with husband in tow this time.

The clinic has a newfangled tool that measures and highlights the 3D image of my back, and it is a lot better for reading bumps and dips.  Height, weight, lung capacity all checked.

In the 3 hour assessment time, I was put through my paces on all exercises. A new one was addedand an old one dropped as deemed unnecessary with the work I'd done.  Husband was shown how to help stretch my compressed side when side lying on a ball. 

The good news is I was told I had excellent rechnique and had rememberd all my exercieses extremely well.  My lung capacity had impressed too, surprisingly. The bad news is my body had pretty well reverted to its bad old self.  I had lost the 1cm I had gained in height, I had gained 2kg weight, and the pain level had increased.  However, the scoliomenter did indicate that my upper thoracic and lumbar measurements were not quite as bad as when I started the clinic.

So, not very good news.  But I was undaunted because I had just spent 3 months traveling around in buses and trucks and 4 wheel drives, bumping along bad roads, camping under the stars, and not able to do 90% of my prescribed exercise program. There just was no opportunity to exercise the way I needed to: too much of the wrong food, nowhere to pull from or lean from, and little time available.  But I had known that from before I started on this journey.  I did what I could: I was able to stretch a bit as opportunity allowed, hang if I could find something the right height and strength, and use my core as much as possible. 

One bright spot was my kyphosis.  I worked on an exercise called "flat back" which wasn't high on the priority list; it wasn't even on my exercises schedule. But it was one I could do while travelling and I did it every second day or so.  My 3 month lateral projection measurement showed a definite improvement, so it was heartening to see that regular exercise targeting a specific muscle can pay off.  That make me confident that once I get home and get my ladder contraption made, I will reverse my reversed results and hopefully make progress by the next time I am assessed.