orthopedic issues

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the other day i met my friends fiancé who has asperger's somehow we got into the topic of back issues he had scoliosis as a kid (he had surgery for it) I have Scheuermann's kyphosis with slight scoliosis

i started to wonder how many aspies out there have back problems is it common? or is it just a coicidence that both me and him have orthopedic issues or is it both ( meaning coicidence but still common

do any of you have any back problems?

my first thought is that it is coincidence. i was so healthy it was sickening....but was murdered by a drunk driver.
so much for healthy. years later after many surgeries and re-hab....in a no good deed ever goes unpunished moment, i was in a way bad car crash and broke three vertebra in my neck. dead again, surgeries and more re-hab.

i have stenosis, arthritis, calcified discs (i'm turning into a fossil), damaged spinal cord, crumbling discs etc.......+ various metal pieces, screws, and wire bits.

what fun.

so, what the hell does all this mean......i had every neurologist and neuro-surgeon give me conflicting info and treatment recommendations. if you have any reservations about what your docs recommend, please do not hesitate to get second or third opinion. it can be stunning what different advice you may receive.

good luck to you!

It may not be a coincidence because there's a connecting factor--hypermobility.

Hypermobility, otherwise known as "being double-jointed" (having joints with a range of motion outside the usual), is associated with scoliosis and other spinal/joint problems. It's also associated with an under-sensitive proprioceptive sense. (Proprioception is the ability to tell where the parts of your body are located and how you are moving.) When your proprioception isn't working quite right, you may end up moving past the normal range of motion just because you're not aware that you're not supposed to stretch your joints that far (typical folks would experience discomfort). Soo... Whether there's a strong connection, I don't know; I doubt it, but there's probably some connection.

I have always been jock-ish, despite having flat feet I even used to be a long distance runner but have recently developed knee issues. Even though I have had some success with athleticism I am very prone to total meltdowns in sport and have an issue with gross unco-ordination from time to time which gets worse with my fatigue. I have been known to just crank golf balls over 100% too far past the hole. At the core of my physical issues is the posture of my hips which are twisted and from time to time I get a sore back from it. I have changed my focus while walking because of this, I litterally have to plan every motion to ensure proper weight distribution and get full articulation from both legs.

Whilst researching my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome diagnosis I discovered quite a high incidence of autism within connective tissue disorder sufferers. I've done some googling, but can't find a statistic to back up my memory, so I won't quote it because it seems rather high. If I find it, I'll be sure to post it here.

It was actually this disorder that made me more autistic through growing lesions in my brain that have now calcified. The right side of my body is more affected than my left, which is a bit larger, probably due to the right side of my brain being larger - I wonder what connection this has to autism as I've had a few radiologists comment on it over the years but give me no clues as to what effects it may have.

Scoliosis, spondylosis, spinal cord stenosis, multiple disc ruptures and calcification, my hips joints are bone on bone, same with my shoulders, daily dislocations and osteoarthritis. I only just turned 41 and my body feels like I'm really old, but my mind is still like I'm three *L*.

I'm actually really surprised not to see more here with connective tissue disorders like EDS.

I so agree with danandlouie, get as many opinions as you can before undergoing surgery. Get onto forums about your condition and read what others have faced so you have a realistic view of the outcomes. If only I had access to the Internet in '94 as I don't think I would have undergone the surgery I did (laminectomy), it only made things worse and lasted five years before I was in more trouble. I refused to have a spinal fusion, so ended up with a neurologist for my second surgery (discectomy), that lasted three days before I was was worse than before the surgery. The scar tissue from the surgeries has given me almost as many problems as the original problem.

Good luck to everyone!

Interesting. One of the people in the love and dating forums mentioned suffering a symptom that may be Dermatosparaxis - the least common form of EDS...

And another quite likely has Poland's Syndrome (One side of the body - most often the right - being more devellopped than the other. Often also expresses with 'webbing' of the hands.).

As for me, I was born with some minor lower-spinal irregularities and the condition linked-below. (Oooh.. I made a funny!) as well as a "horseshoe kidney" - which means I have two kidneys, but the darn things are connected to each other by a huge (natural) tube that can push against my spine quite uncomfortably at times.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperforate_anus
--
You can call me an $#%^ but I wasn't even born with one, pal.

Since being diagnosed with EDS in 2007 I have become a walking EDS encyclopedia...my doctors kind of enjoy it because they don't have to look anything up

My geneticist (who is an EDS researcher) said unfortunately because autism is so common, she can't really forge a connection between the two.