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So good news. Yesterday I had a Dexa Scan. This is a full body X-ray. I wasn't expecting to see the X-ray but the moment I got off the table I saw it. I could see my curves. No doubt in my mind they haven't progressed significantly. My lumbar looks like it has hardly any curve. This is good because lumbar is the most complicated. Thorasic doesn't look bad either... but weirdly.. my cervical seems the worst. Now we never paid attention to that when I was a kid. I was told that the cervical was the least problematic because it was most easily fixable and it didn't cause issues with organs. Thorasic can cause trouble breathing if it progresses enough and both Thorasic and lumbar can cause bad pain.
Also good, if I did choose to get surgery I think I could be a candidate for the minimally invasive surgery. As that is considered ok for people with upper body curves as opposed to lumbar.
I think I will have it officially checked out in about a year (try to avoid the X-ray overload) but I am pretty confident it hasn't moved much.
Also, the Dexa scan measures your bone mass and mine is in relatively good shape. Everything is "normal". This is great because I hardly do anything for my bones and I have a good measurement now.
The only frustrating part is that my back still hurts. Not sure why. But since I am pretty sure now that my bones and curves are not progressing... I feel like it is time to look to metabolic issues. The pain is in the upper lumbar / lower thoracic so I am pretty sure it is not related to the scoliosis.
It measured my fat mass. Yikes.. but at least now I know.
Finally the guy was nice enough to measure my height. This kicked everything off as I noticed that my height had dropped from 5'4.25 to 5'3.5. On my records this happened 2 years ago. Though I can't be sure when because my doctor told me they way they do records (and this annoys me) is that they use the last measurement to compute BMI and only do actual measurements for a physical or some other type of new exam (new doctor). So it is possible this happened way before the two year ago measurement. But this guy put me at 5'3.75. I think 1/2 inch loss is reasonable.
This was absolutely worth it. I had been trying to get a regular bone scan at my medical institution but first they cancelled on me and then they didn't have another appointment until April. This place I got the Dexa scan had an immediate appointment and I got a TON of info about my health. I did have to pay out of pocket but who knows what the insurance would have paid for on the regular bone scan.
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