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 31 of Martha’s Healing Journey
“The body does not need to be corrected. It needs to be understood.”
This is what my friend and osteopath, Simon, said to me today as he gave me a treatment. It made me sigh, then smile, then frown. I immediately wondered if there was any chance my teenage scoliotic body could have been better ‘understood’ – rather than ‘corrected’ through dramatic fusion surgery – so many moons ago…
But I digress.
Read MorePart 30 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Throughout this blog, I have been writing about my healing journey, starting with the removal of my Harrington rods in 1995 when I was 35 years old — until today, where I am quickly approaching 60. Eek!
In some ways, I feel in better shape now than I was back then. That is because, regardless of the increasing wrinkles, extra flab, and age spots, I am much more mindful and aware about all aspects of my ‘soma'—my entire physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual being—than I have ever been before. Part of this has to do with life experience, but most of it is due to my constant search for different ways to be comfortable with my mostly uncomfortable fusion.
Yoga for Scoliosis, and yoga in general, has helped me tremendously, but I continue to find new layers of the ‘healing onion’ to explore.
Read MorePart 29 of Martha’s Healing Journey
A few weeks ago, I went to bed feeling fine.
When I tried to stand up the next morning, I was completely crooked.
I had such a sharp pain in my right sacroiliac joint that I was forced to tilt way over to the left, which made me feel completely crippled. I limped to the washroom, mumbling to myself about how this was impossible, and then dragged myself back to bed. I was fine the night before... What happened in my sleep?
Shit!!
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 26 of Martha’s Healing Journey
In celebration of National Scoliosis Awareness month, I shared 10 Simple Exercises for Scoliosis and Fusions over the month of June via my slightly embarrassing but cute stick-figure drawings :)
They are truly simple, but they are also very effective. And they are accumulative.
The more you practice them, the more powerful they become.
Read MorePart 25 of Martha’s Healing Journey
When it comes to scoliosis, patience is everything.
Action, determination, and patience.
And trust.
And rest.
AND MINDFULNESS.
At least that’s what it feels like to me.
Following my confession last month about a frustrating day of body awareness and transformation, it occurs to me that by calling it a ‘day’, I am not fully recognizing the truth of my frustrations around scoliosis.
They are constant.
CONSTANT.
But, so?
Read MorePart 24 of Martha’s Healing Journey
This is a confession.
A confession in that as much as I am completely dedicated to exploring everything possible to help my body, it can be really hard.
Both physically and (sometimes even more) emotionally.
Part 23 of Martha’s Healing Journey
In my December 2018 blog post, I wrote about how I was starting to learn a gentle body-mind technique called Somatics. Since that time, I have continued to explore this work, finding many interesting and helpful connections.
Today, I want to follow up about my progress with addressing my own sensory motor amnesia, specifically regarding scoliosis.
Read MorePart 22 of Martha’s Healing Journey
It has been almost 10 years since I started the Twisted Outreach Project for Backcare and Scoliosis (TOPS) — with the idea of sharing ‘twisty’ knowledge for scoliotic bodies.
Since then, we have held workshops, classes, lectures, performances, and many social gatherings. We have become a hub - in person and online - where folks with scoliosis can connect to teachers and scoliosis specialists of all kinds, simultaneously building knowledge and community. Our ever-growing mailing list includes people from around the world, with one student traveling all the way from Japan just to attend a weekend workshop!
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 20 of Martha’s Healing Journey
In my last blog about pain, I addressed how, for most people with scoliosis, pain is a constant companion. And although it may seem obvious that a compressed spine that curves and twists the body into a crooked position will cause some discomfort, it is not quite that simple.
In fact, it is well documented that a person's response to pain is heavily influenced by many individual traits, as well as the particular psychological, emotional and social factors affecting their life.
Read MorePart 19 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Have you ever noticed that pain can be LOUD?
There have been a few times in my life when I have experienced such crazy ‘loud’ pain that I could not even think, or be, or feel anything -- except that pain
Part 18 of Martha’s Healing Journey
How the spine relates to all other joints.
Over the years, as I have worked on finding comfort and mobility in my fused spine, I have definitely felt things improve for the better.
Unfortunately, one day about 13 years ago, while moving a box up some stairs, I felt my left knee pop, and that incident was - unbeknownst to me at the time - the beginning of a new healing journey.
Part 17 of Martha’s Healing Journey
Summary of a recorded Skype discussion between Martha Carter and Kristen Fay Gorman
In my last blog, I detailed the most common surgical procedures used to correct scoliosis. Although advanced technology allows for successful spinal corrections with fusions and rods, I believe that most people would agree that it would be much better if we could stop scoliosis from developing at all!
Read MorePart 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 More