In this serial blog, Martha’s Healing Journey, Martha Carter talks about her personal journey, beginning with her diagnosis of scoliosis at age 13, all the way through her Harrington rod removal, along with sharing her past and ongoing in-depth explorations and discoveries with many different healing modalities and health practitioners.
We encourage you to start with Part 1.
Part 40 of Martha’s Healing Journey
… “The first step is to start to pay attention and learn to listen to your body… then learn to respond. Scoliosis affects the full body with its curves and twists, and having a fusion affects the whole body with its constant rigidity which in turn limits our full movement potential.” …
Read MorePart 34 of Martha’s Healing Journey
One of the ongoing themes is how doctors are not helpful after surgery, and how there is NO FOLLOW-UP PROTOCOL for people with fusions.
This is crazy! The more I think about it, the more it upsets me.
But I digress...
Read MorePart 28 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Recently, I have been listening to many podcasts and watching Youtube videos exploring the Stress-Disease Connection by the acclaimed physician, speaker, teacher, and best-selling author, Dr. Gabor Maté. His talks are fascinating, sprinkled with insights from working as a physician, as well as his own personal experience dealing with addictions, depression, and anxiety. His research around trauma and healing intrigue me.
Read MorePart 27 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Recently, thanks to my work doing private consultations, classes, workshops and retreats, I have been meeting many wonderful ‘scoliotics’ and ‘fusioneers’. I am always amazed at the stories we share, and I continue to admire the incredible resilience shown by every single person with this confounding condition.
Recently, I worked with a lovely woman in her mid-50s, who has lived and survived a very similar scoliosis story to me - more or less.
Read MorePart 21 of Martha’s Healing Journey
On New Year’s eve, I was chatting with my wonderfully ‘alive’ 83 year old mom. We were reflecting on the past year, and thinking ahead to 2019, when she asked: “So Martha, with all of your exploring of healing techniques, what do you think I should do next to look after myself… to be healthier; to feel better?”
That made me laugh out loud, as she is already more health-conscious and active than most people half her age - she does weekly pilates, senior’s exercise, regular massage, a yearly yoga retreat, walking, swimming, and more! Nevertheless, it got me thinking there is always more we can do for ourselves.
Part 16 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Scoliosis is a really confounding condition! The more I try to explain it, the more I realize that it is full of contradictions.
Nobody knows why it happens, or who will get it. Given that every scoliosis is unique, the effects can be so different for each person, which of course makes it difficult to compare notes.
Read MorePart 15 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Did you know that June is Scoliosis Awareness Month? And that June 30th is International Scoliosis Awareness Day… every year?
To mark this occasion, this blog is all about something I know very well: Fusions!
Read MorePart 14 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Since I had my Harrington rods removed, I have explored and discovered many therapies. Aside from Yoga for Scoliosis, which has been my main focus, there are three other popular Scoliosis-targeted exercise methods that are becoming more available and showing promising results.
Read MorePart 13 of Martha’s Healing Journey
One of the hardest things about scoliosis is that it is difficult to know what to do to make it better. People ask me questions like these all the time:
How do you cure scoliosis?
How can I make my back straight again?
How can I stop the curve from getting worse?
What can I do to get rid of the pain?
Though extremely understandable questions to ask, they are very difficult questions to answer, because every person and every curve is different. There is one thing that is for sure though: it is NOT possible to CURE a structural scoliosis.
Part 12 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Through attending Yoga For Scoliosis with Elise Browning Miller, I came to clearly understand that Yoga could really help me, but it also opened me up to the realization that I didn't know anything about Yoga — in the wider sense. When I first started studying Yoga, I was completely distracted by my own body fears and discomforts.
Read MorePart 10 of Martha’s Healing Journey
When my back finally started to feel stronger and more mobile, I found myself dreaming about dancing. In that moment between sleep and awake, I would have visions of myself in an extreme arabesque with my an open chest, arched back, and a long, high leg. Sometimes it was à Ia seconde - with my leg lifted to the side. I was never wearing a tutu. I was always either in street clothes or naked. I could feel my spine - free and powerful.
Part 6 of Martha’s Healing Journey
The results of my intense massage routine and gym training slowly gave me confidence to try new things in the search for more mobility and pain relief. I thought that by having my Harrington rods removed, everything would be better, immediately. But, as it turned out, I encountered a whole new set of challenges...
Read MorePart 5 of Martha’s Healing Journey
As I mentioned in Part 3 of this serial blog post, after the removal of my Harrington rods, I was eager to experience movement in a new way—without the restriction of metal implants. But because I still felt stiff and had muscle spasms, I decided to work with a massage therapist, Dawn, to help break up the scar tissue that had built up over the years.
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