[Selke]

Are there other RNs with scoliosis out there? Especially severe scoliosis with noticeable rib hump (the Quasimodo look), spinal fusion, metal instrumentation, chronic pain issues, especially in low back/hips, which is a recent development for me. I have all of the above and am always scared of losing my job, which happened once and I got blackballed by Northwestern Memorial in Chicago. I have to do a song and dance with every preemployment evaluation. I also have narcolepsy from longstanding insomnia. Depression -- well we won't go there.

[psalm]

Sorry to hear it. I had a friend in the 1980s who worked as an RN and had the same situation. She had a metal rod in her back and would complain of how cold she got during our Michigan winters...had trouble with pt. care sometimes due to her short stature also. Can't help you with any advice, but wanted you to know there are other nurses out there with scoliosis. Do you work nights? Is that contributing to the insomnia? Just a thought.

[Selke]

No, I don't work nights, but when I did I couldn't cope with it. I lost those years of my life, I was just a zombie when I was off work. It derailed my ambitions for grad school and I lost two years of my daughter's lives. I think working nights those two years started my problems with insomnia, although anxiety causes most of it. Sleep studies require a hefty copay which I haven't been able to afford yet; I'd like to get the anxiety treated but it's hard finding a therapist who will do that.

I wonder what others do with noticeable deformities, when you catch coworkers on the sly staring at you, and stress out over anticipating managers saying something to you. Coworkers who give others backrubs ignore you. It's awfully humiliating. I think legally they can only ask so much; I would only tell them that I have never filed workmen's comp and never been injured on the job (all true). Most RNs I know have chronic back problems or history of injury, anyway, so I don't see myself as worse off than they are, but there is prejudice.

[cinnyluvscats]

I've had scoliosis since I was 14 years old. Had corrective surgery when I was 18 (Luque wire technique). Orginially, my curvature was about 60-65 degrees top and bottom (S-shaped curve) that's been corrected to about 40 degrees.

I have worked on and off for 20+ years as an RN and gave birth to 4 kids vaginally (not all at once). I've used my experience as a patient to improve my ability to care for others. In fact, it was my hospital stay for the surgery that helped me decide to become a nurse.

Good luck with your situation!
Cindy

[Selke]

Originally Posted by cinnyluvscats

... I've used my experience as a patient to improve my ability to care for others. In fact, it was my hospital stay for the surgery that helped me decide to become a nurse.
Cindy

Yup, these experiences while young change you in weird ways. This is what got my interest up in health care. I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon for quite some time. That, and I never had confidence I could support myself as an artist. (Maybe in my next life.)

[Sehsun]

I am not an RN yet, but I have scoliosis - I was diagnosed when I was 13 with a 32 degree curve. It went up to 38 degrees four months later, and I wore a Boston TLSO for about a year. It was a really hard time for me, but like some of you have expressed, that experience had an influence on my passion for health and medical-related things. I remember checking out books from the library about scoliosis and learning all about the surgeries (even though I never had surgery for it. I too remember when I kinda wanted to go into orthopedics - I even shadowed an orthopedic surgeon for a day in 9th grade and really loved it!

I haven't been back to an orthopedic surgeon since before I went to college - I am very curious to see how my spine is doing now. I have a not-so-noticeable rib hump.

Cindy, wow, 60-65 degrees! That's a really major case - that's good that you got surgery for it.

[cinnyluvscats]

The last time I saw an orthopedic surgeon for my back was back in 1994 after I delivered my youngest. Was having tailbone pain and wanted to get checked out. Other than having 1-2 broken wires at the very bottom of the fusion, I was fine.

Hope your scoliosis doesn't interfere with your nursing career.

Cindy

[Pitt Grad]

I have scoliosis and have worked as an RN for 28 years; I had spinal fusion surgery in 2001; spent the bulk of my nursing career as a staff development instructor so I was running around hospitals doing eduction then standing in classrooms when I wasn't demonstrating CPR.

Nursing definitely did not help my physical status. Good luck.

[earle58]

when i was 15, i was dx'd w/scoliosis.
at that time, it was 36 degrees.
somehow (don't remember), my surgeon knew that i was too late for a brace.
by the time he said i needed surgery, it was 84 degrees.
had 12 vertebrae fused (t1-t12), w/bone taken from my hip.

anyway, and knock on wood, i haven't had any problems.
my back is strong and any pain is easily traced to the hardships in nsg.

btw, my surgery resulted in near perfect correction of 10-11 degrees.

leslie

[Sehsun]

Leslie,
WOW, 84 degrees - that is a very extreme case - I cannot believe how fast it progressed! The amount of correction that was done was wonderful! Glad to hear that your back is doing fine.

- Iris