The rain, the mud, and the hard work don't bother Terri Sanders – that's part of the appeal of adventure racing. "It's a variety of things: biking, running, kayaking, challenges like puzzles or rope climbing." Unfortunately for Terri, she faces...
The rain, the mud, and the hard work don't bother Terri Sanders – that's part of the appeal of adventure racing. "It's a variety of things: biking, running, kayaking, challenges like puzzles or rope climbing." Unfortunately for Terri, she faces another challenge: scoliosis.
It was a routine school check that caught Terri's scoliosis. "I was first diagnosed when I was going into eighth grade. The curve that I experienced was an "S" curve so you could actually see it when I bent over." Terri's scoliosis was severe enough that she needed a brace, but Terri decided to just live with a curved spine because, "I was just so petrified of that brace," she says. Eventually the curved spine, shifted weight, and awkward posture caught up with her. Doing nothing was no longer an option.
"I experienced daily pain. I would take different over-the-counter medications just to do my activities. It just got to the point where I couldn't handle it anymore." Traditionally, scoliosis is treated in adolescence and the thinking was that if as an adult you still have that curve in your spine there wasn't much you could do about it, but that's all changing. The old myth was that adult scoliosis didn't hurt and it didn't get worse but on both counts we were dead wrong."
Dr. Shelokov started out treating adolescents with scoliosis, but over time he's found an increasing audience of adults who needed his care and now he's got treatment options for them. "The tools have caught up with what we know about the disease. Now we can do very lovely corrections of the spine less destructively and in fact make both adolescence and adult very functional rather than debilitated by the very operation that was being done to treat the problem." Gone are the bulky braces; now there's physical therapy and smaller, less noticeable braces.
Terri's curve was treatable with surgery. Essentially using screws and a cage, they straightened and fused together the bottom of the "S" curve in her spine. "She has a very short fusion - five veterbra – it leaves her spine below the fusion untouched and normal and leaves her spine above the fusion untouched and normal."
With the help of her inner ear and equilibrium, the top curve will now correct itself, and Terri has mobility through the rest of her back, which means things like running and mountain biking are possible. "It's life-changing for me because I'm able to do things that I wasn't able to do before and I say that because I'm able to do them without pain. I would have never done a sport like this with the pain I was experiencing before."
In fact Terri didn't start adventure racing until a year after her surgery. "Terri and many of adult patients have gone back to a very vibrant life with very few limitations." And for kids, well Dr. Shelekov says new advances in genetics means there's now a test they can give kids with scoliosis that will tell them if the curve will get worse over time." "I firmly believe in the future as we understand the genetics of this condition we will be able to treat patients with gene therapy and more modern methods." For Terri it means a new life: free of pain and full of finish lines.
Learn More About Scoliosis From the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health
