A journey with Cai Lin...

"Swimming with Scoliosis" - that was my topic during the Sports Medicine Australia conference last week. Every fourth year, this conference will be some where out of Australia and this year it happened to be in Langkawi! Great place and even greater conference. It was the first time I was invited to be a speaker at such a big huge event. With Dr Chan - President of Sports Medicine Malaysia and Mr Anthony Merrilees - CEO of Sports Medicine Australia As you know, I was a former competitive swimmer and only decided to have my operation done recently as no surgeon could guarantee that I could go back into competitive swimming. Putting my surgery on hold also meant that my scoliosis would get worst as the years passed. But this was a risk I was willing to take because of my swimming career. At the end of the day it all turned out really well for me. Soon it will be 6 months since my operation and all that I've been through has most definitely been worth it. 

Do you ever think about your back everyday? Not really? Yup, I'm like that, or rather, was like that too. I'll only think of my back when it's hurting or when I need to lift something heavy from the ground. Even stuff like bending over the sink to brush my teeth or bending down to tie my shoelace was never a big deal. And then my operation happened... I could hardly move much after my operation. I felt like I had this huge flat board tied to my back and it was hard walking around with it. I had to use a mug to brush my teeth, couldn't do the dishes (cause even that slight bending forward would feel uncomfortable/painful), couldn't cut my toe nails, even coughing was a pain! Don't even talk about sneezing..that was just..HELL!! But with every passing day, I felt a lot better. Slowly my flexibility started coming back and I had more range of motion. And one fine day...I could bend down to tie my shoelaces! 😂 It may sound very dramatic but trust me, once you

9/10/2017 Had my second post op check up with my surgeon. He was really happy about my progress. Took two x-rays, one from the back and one side ways, and my bones have all fused up! 5 months post op, not bad huh? As I've said in my previous post, I'm really glad that I've done the operation. I can walk so much more now without my lower back aching. Since I've started working I haven't really had the time to exercise but I'm definitely planning to start exercising sometime soon. My doctor said I can start doing some light swimming soon but I think I've had enough of swimming for a while so I'm going to find new exercises to do. Any suggestions? <3 Cai Lin