|
Ugh I asked my primary care doctor for a referral and she is JUST clueless. She referred me to the health network's "spine and pain center" when I looked it up... there isn't even a doctor involved... never mind a scoliosis doctor. Just "pain" people. And frankly, all I want is someone to take an x-ray and tell me the degree of curve. I don't really care too much about pain.
A bit of good news... one reason I was really worried was that... at one point in my life I was 5'4.5 to 5'5 when I got measured. But recently someone said I was 5.35 -- that freaked me out. To lose an entire inch? Now... I know sometimes when I knew I was getting measured I would try to stand a bit straighter but I feel like that is too much to account for that. It just seemed like evidence my back was slipping.
So I looked it up and turns out according to my records I started showing up at 5'4 to 5'35 around 2016 and 2017. And I have been pain free since that time. So that sort of says any pain maybe unrelated.
But I found out that after the age of 40 it is expected that women will lose height. This doesn't mean you have osteoporosis, it is just a drying out of the discs in your back and compression due to that. I had no idea. I didn't think you lose height until you were having bone problems. In fact, depressingly, women can lose from 2 to 3 inches by age 80.
I do have a bone density test upcoming. Likely that will happen before I get in for a back x-ray.
I have decided this issue is beyond the scope of my primary care. There is a massive hospital near me, considered one of the best in the nation and I am going to make an appointment here. They have a scoliosis section. The only drawback with a big hospital and big doctors is they almost always want to operate asap and put pressure on you. But I will just have to fight that off.
|