Life with Scoliosis | Page 2 of 12 | Loving life with a titanium spine

5 positives we can take from lock-down

Posted on March 28, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

It's a scary and difficult time for us all at the moment amidst the Coronavirus outbreak. The UK is now in lock-down. As of 23rd March, we can only leave the house for essential supermarket visits or to exercise. If we go outside, we need to stay 2m away from others and we are not allowed to meet friends or family. This is something I don't think any of us ever imagined would happen in our lifetimes and it felt...Read More

Sigh…Corona

Posted on March 21, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

There's not really much purpose to this post, other than the fact that I needed to get my thoughts down. It's been a difficult and scary time for everyone amidst the Corona-virus outbreak and at the moment, I feel like I'm in a film that I'm not particularly enjoying. Everything just seems highly surreal. Last week, I was upset that the marathon I had trained for months for, had been postponed. This week, I feel that there are bigger things...Read More

Manchester Marathon: Postponed

Posted on March 14, 2020March 30, 2020 by Louise

So yesterday, the inevitable happened. In the midst of the corona virus craze, the Manchester Marathon, for which I have been training for months, was postponed. At the moment we don't know when it will be postponed to and I'm not sure if I'll even be able to run it, as I'm worried it may clash with my planned trip to Machu Picchu later this year. To say I'm gutted is an understatement. The marathon training has taken over months...Read More

Parkrun Alphabet Challenge: Z for Ziegelwiese Parkrun!

Posted on March 9, 2020April 15, 2020 by Louise

So last year, I started getting involved in the Parkrun Alphabet Challenge, with the aim of completing a different Parkrun for every letter of the alphabet. This year, the alphabet challenge has taken a bit of a back seat, due to marathon training. However so far this year, I have still managed to fit in Nobles Parkrun (Isle of Mann) in January and, most recently, Ziegelwiese Parkrun in Germany. I have now completed 68 Parkruns in 21 locations, including 15...Read More

Marathon Training: 10 Essential Items you need during training

Posted on March 1, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Training for a marathon can be hard work, but there are some things that can make the gruelling training schedule a little easier. There are several items that have helped me during training for my first marathon, so I thought I'd share them below: 1. AfterShokz Headphones These are a recent purchase of mine but my AfterShokz headphones are an absolute life-saver on long marathon training runs. I think, after my Garmin watch (see below),...Read More

Preparing for Scoliosis Surgery: From a Caretakers Perspective

Posted on February 23, 2020April 12, 2020 by Louise

If someone close to you is about to undergo scoliosis surgery, as someone on the “other side” it can be just as daunting to know how best to prepare and what to expect. For this special blog post, I have teamed up with Sanna – she has recently been in the caretaker role for her sister, who underwent scoliosis surgery Summer of 2018. She can offer invaluable advice, from a caretaker’s point of view on how to best prepare for...Read More

Marathon Training: 10 Tips to Prepare for a Long Run

Posted on February 21, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As I'm currently in the midst (and pain!) of marathon training, I've found myself getting into a bit of a pre-run routine when it comes to preparing for a long run, so I thought I'd share on here in case the things I've picked up are of use to anyone else. As some of you may be aware, I'm currently training for my first marathon (Manchester Marathon in April) to raise awareness and money...Read More

My 2020 Challenges: Manchester Marathon & Machu Picchu

Posted on February 5, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

This year marks 10 years since I had life-changing surgery on my spine to correct my scoliosis. I had scoliosis surgery on July 29th 2010. I’m fused T3 to L3, which basically means that pretty much my whole spine is fused apart from 3 discs at the bottom. Following my surgery, it took me over a year to fully recover and I had to learn the basics again such as walking and getting out of bed. It was a very painful...Read More

My 2020 Goals

Posted on January 8, 2020April 13, 2020 by Louise

Happy New Year all! I wanted to reflect back on my 2019 goals and share where I'm at for 2020 (wow!) I'm really proud of everything I achieved in 2019, I managed to run four half marathons, including the Great North Run, which was definitely a highlight of the year. In one of those I got a PB of 2.02, so although I didn't achieve my goal of sub 2, I was pretty close and very proud of that. In...Read More

5 Self Care Tips for those with Scoliosis

Posted on November 28, 2019April 13, 2020 by Louise

5 Self Care Tips for Scoliosis Over the past year, I have been living life on full speed, and as a result, have recently made myself pretty ill and run down. This has been very frustrating for me, as I've not been able to run or do the things I enjoy for a while. But this forced rest has made me realise something. That although I have been trying to focus on myself over the last 8 months or so...Read More

A single 6 months: What I’ve learnt

Posted on November 24, 2019April 13, 2020 by Louise

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning." Back in June, I wrote a very personal post about how I was feeling following the end of a toxic relationship. As June is nearly 6 months ago now (and 8 months after said relationship ended), I'm feeling reflective again (not unusual for me!) So I wanted to write a bit of an update of how I'm feeling now, 6 months on, and also...Read More

Parkrun Alphabet Challenge: Jersey!

Posted on November 4, 2019April 13, 2020 by Louise

Earlier this year, myself and a few others from my run club decided to take part in the Parkrun alphabet challenge. This is basically a challenge to complete a Parkrun for every letter of the alphabet. I love this idea because not only do we get to try some new Parkruns, which keeps it fun and interesting, we also get to see a few new places in the process. We started by doing a few of the different local Parkruns,...Read More

Parkrun Alphabet Challenge: N = Northwich parkrun

Posted on July 21, 2019April 13, 2020 by Louise

One of my challenges this year is to start working my way through the Parkrun Alphabet challenge. For me, this is a fun way to try out some new Parkruns, whilst also seeing a bit more of the UK (and world!!) There are quite a few different Parkruns locally to me (within say an hours drive) and so it seems sensible to tick these off the list first. On Saturday, myself and one of my friends from my run club...Read More

Parkrun Alphabet Challenge: Parkrun Tourism

Posted on July 8, 2019April 13, 2020 by Louise

So... you may know from past posts that I'm pretty much addicted to Parkrun. If you haven't heard of Parkrun, it's a free weekly timed 5k that happens in parks all over the world at 9am on Saturday mornings. I've been going to Parkrun for a couple of years on and off, although last year I went most Saturday's if I could. It's a fantastic way to keep fit and meet other like-minded people and there's just a fab, supportive...Read More

Half Marathon Training with Scoliosis: Training Diary – 9 weeks to go!

Posted on July 8, 2019April 13, 2020 by Louise

Hi everyone, So for my next challenge... I was very lucky enough to secure a place in the ballot of the Great North Run in September! (In Newcastle Upon Tyne) To say I'm excited is an understatement. This is a huge race and a massive event in the running community. Soooo... I need to up my training that's for sure. At the beginning of this year, I got a half marathon PB at the Wrexham Half Marathon (2hrs 2 mins!)...Read More