Before and after.....

Now, I am no expert on calculating Cobb angles, but I’ve been curious about what my ‘vital statistics’ are and since a tape measure isn’t much help, I have been drawing lots of lines all over the photos of my x-rays and dusting off my old school protractor.

Of course, it helps in knowing what my 2003 x-ray actually was, so once I had managed to measure that to within a degree or so of what the surgeon had calculated I thought I would have a go on my pre-op and post op x rays. The results came out like this:

• October 2003
• Thoracic curve 55 º Lumbar curve 62 º
• February 2006 - Pre-op
• Thoracic curve 60 º Lumbar curve 73 º
• March 2006 Post Op
• Thoracic curve 30 º Lumbar curve 33 º

Oh yes, and back when I was 18 my curves were:

• Thoracic curve 43º(?*) Lumbar curve 45 º

Now, even if we assume that my measurements are a little iffy and allow for a 10 or even 20% deviation in my figures, that’s still a pretty nasty progression rate and a pretty good correction. Clever bods these surgeons!

*We are not entirely certain of the thoracic angle but know that there was only a tiny difference between the two curves.