Anastasia's Medical Records

[GrandDuchessAnastasia]

According to Wikipedia, syncope is the dropping of letters in a word: 'over' becomes 'o'er' and 'never' becomes 'ne'er'. I'd never heard that Anastasia had a speech impediment! That's interesting.

You never heard that she did because she didn't. Syncope in grammatical terms is the shortening of a word, such as in poems and songs. But, in medical terms, "syncope" is a brief loss of consciousness caused by a temporary deficiency of oxygen in the brain. I've never heard of Anastasia having frequent fainting spells so I'm curious as to where GrandDuchessAnastasia heard this.

Yes. Holly is right. "Syncope" is exactly what you said it is. Syncope could be caused by deficiency of oxygen in the brain, and one of its causes could be cardiac troubles. Did Anastasia really suffered from "syncope"  in these very medical terms? Sincerily, I ignored it.

However, she indeed had frequent fainting spells. If you read the letters she wrote to her parents and friends, you'll notice many of them. But all her sisters would make grammatical  mistakes when writing. That was pretty common in them. Maybe it was for they are not excellent students, to said the least  . And of course, speaking and writing as they did, more than a language, it is pretty normal that they would make grammatical mistakes.

But now, I think that GranduchessAnastasia was referring to the mistakes she would make SPEAKING...Am I wrong? I think I never read anywhere that Anastasia had these kind of problems. her speech seems to have been quite common and normal...Isn't it? The writing..Oh; this is just another story.

RealAnastasia. 

Where did you find the letters about her having fainting spells? I'd like to read.
And to clarify--I meant the medical 'syncope'.
BTW.I wish I could find the site, but it's been a long time since I saw it.

[Holly]

I'm 99% sure she didn't have fainting spells, Brooshka. I've been obsessed with Anastasia for a very long time and I've NEVER heard anything about her having oxygen problems and fainting.  I think it would be well-known just like her other medical issues - as fainting is a pretty big deal.

[GrandDuchessAnastasia]

Thanks Holly. I was just wondering what Real Anastasia was talking about when she said 'however she did indeed have frequent fainting spells'
Could you clear this up for me RA?

[grandduchess_42]

i remeber reading somewhere that she did have a weak back!
and something about massages.

fainting spells thats odd?
why would she have those!

[RealAnastasia]

Hey...There is not a letter ABOUT fainting spelling. I'm remembering her own letters (this is, written by Anastasia herself) with lots of grammatical mistakes. Since I'm not an English native speaker, maybe "fainting spelling" is other thing than faults when writting, but if there is this, I must said that she DID have grammatical faults, as all her sisters had.  You are able to read some samples of Anastasia's way of writing here, in this very Forum (some people quoted her letters and "litterary works"), but you may also find different little things she wrote at "A Lifelong Passion- Nicholas and Alexandra. Their own Story" an excellent compitalion made by Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko...Its a book where there are lots of excerpts of letters, memoirs and other writings of "Imperial people" from back then, especially Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children.

And I suppose that Anastasia did not have anything to do with syncope.  Syncope is a fainting produced by momentary heart failure. It could eventually, drive to death. I think its synonime of "heart attack". And no; it seems Anastasia never suffered from such a thing. Its extremely rare in a young child, even if it is possible for them to have it.

But the problems in her back seems to have been true, according to Olga Alexandrovna's testimony. And of course, you may realize it in photos, were she always appears with her neck and shoulders projected forward. Ths is typical of people suffering from the back.

RealAnastasia.

[Holly]

All I know of Anastasia's medical history: Anastasia did have a weak back; one of the muscles there was defective. A massusse named Tatiana had to come to the Palace every week and give her a massage. Anastasia called it 'fuss' and really disliked it. She often hid, and therefore, put off the massage for a while. She had bunions which were very painful and she was going to have surgery for it but then they decided not too, for it was too risky. It is said she got from her mother a troublesome stomach and a disorder in which whenever one is very angry or upset, they get hives on the face and neck. Also she had to have a mole removed from her shoulder blade. From what I remember at the moment, she had had at least one bout of: Chicken pox, diptheria, influenza, German measles, and bronchitus. (I had more but can't remember at the moment, when I do I'll post the rest.)
RA, by "fainting spells", we didn't mean anything that had to do with Anastasia's grammatical faults.  "Spells" is a term used to describe the moments that a certain thing happened. [Ex: An area that is without rain for a long while would be going through a dry spell.] It is probably very confusing if you're not a native English speaker. 

[tatianolishka_1]

A defective muscle? I always thought it was scoliosis! I knew about the bunions thing and the "disorder"; I have the same thing. It's really annoying and can be painful. Not much, though.

[grandduchess_42]

i looked up the word Scoliosis

sco·li·o·sis
–noun Pathology.
an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine.

and we also stated that she had a devective muscle in her back.
i have a 60 degree curve in my spine.. do you think she had something like that?


so what it all boils down to about the "spells" is
that we don't really know if she did have her fainting spells.. but it was recorded
by Anastasia (herself) that she did, correctly please if i am wrong

[Holly]

i looked up the word Scoliosis

sco·li·o·sis
–noun Pathology.
an abnormal lateral curvature of the spine.

and we also stated that she had a devective muscle in her back.
i have a 60 degree curve in my spine.. do you think she had something like that?


so what it all boils down to about the "spells" is
that we don't really know if she did have her fainting spells.. but it was recorded
by Anastasia (herself) that she did, correctly please if i am wrong

I'm pretty sure she just had a defective muscle...I read that in someone's memoirs...not sure who it was though, I'll search around for it. A lot of people have scoliosis. It's not very uncommon. It's determined by the curve of your spine and is found in childhood. Anastasia never recorded that she had a fainting problem or ever fainted; nobody did. We're not exactly sure where GDA heard this, and it's more than likely untrue.

[grandduchess_42]

oh ok! thank you holly for clearing that up

so we don't really know where we got the "fainting spells"?

[RealAnastasia]

Well...as far as I know , bunions could be REALLY  painful. A friend of mine must go to surgery, for there so painful that she could not still stand up for too much time. Bunions are a great problem for her. She told me that , for aesthetics reasons, she used to hide her feet under the sand when she went to the beach, so awful they were. All her pains and other problems ended when she got surgery, God thanks. Sadly, Anastasia was never operated ...I imagine how much she suffered.

Yes; I think that I read somewhere that Anastasia had scoliosis. If I could just remember in which book!  . Her way of being stand up is very characteristic to scoliosis. Other great noblewoman who suffered from it (it was dscovered by a "post-mortem" autopsia practiced on her in the 1950's), was Maria Teresa Cayetana y Alvarez de Toledo, the famous "Duchess of Alba", the one who wil be always remembered for being the model of "The Naked Maja", by Goya...Even if it is proved that SHE WAS NOT the Naked Maja...One of the reasons for she couldn't have been the Maja, is her scoliosis...If you watch the portrait of Duchess of Alba where she is  wearing a black dress, you'll notice that her way of being standing is the same of young Anastasia.

RealAnastasia.

[grandduchess_42]

yes she must have, because now that i look at pictures of her, you can tell a little curve in her back.
it seems that she got a bit more of a curve during her last months or years.

look at this picture here, you can really tell about the curve



i don't have bunions, but i do have caluses, and they hurt
my grand mother has bunions... don't they deform you feet?
she can stand up for a long period of time, because she got specific shoes made for her.

but i saw he with out her shoes, and her foot looked totally deformed! i couldn't believe it!

[Sarushka]

I think she's just slouching forward in that photo...

Scoliosis is a curve in the spine from side to side, not front to back. So if you want to look for photographic evidence of scoliosis in Anastasia, look for uneven shoulder and hip levels, as well as uneven hemlines.

[tatianolishka_1]

Her particular case of bunions was called hallux something-or-other. It made her big toe go inwards, making her feet rather misshapen. From what I've read (not much), the cause is wearing bad shoes and develops later in life. But my question is why did Anastasia have it so young? Surely their shoes weren't THAT bad! Or does it have nothing to do with the shoes?

As for the scoliosis.. here is a diagram comparing a person with scoliosis and someone without:

[Aliss_Kande]

Well...as far as I know , bunions could be REALLY  painful. A friend of mine must go to surgery, for there so painful that she could not still stand up for too much time. Bunions are a great problem for her. She told me that , for aesthetics reasons, she used to hide her feet under the sand when she went to the beach, so awful they were. All her pains and other problems ended when she got surgery, God thanks. Sadly, Anastasia was never operated ...I imagine how much she suffered.

I have bunions, and I think it depends on the person as to how much pain they cause.  I have bunions, but it doesn't cause me that much pain, and I dance in pointe shoes! (the hard ballet shoes).  Yes, there are times when they can hurt, but not that often.  I know Anastasia had bunions, but I have not heard of it causing her that much pain.  Yes, there are times when it probably hurt, but I think they must have been few and far between since it is not mentioned very much.

As for GD_42's comment on the feet looking deformed, they do.  The big toe and the little toe point inward, making the toes form a triangle shape.  The knuckle on the side of the big toe is especially large, and that it what causes me the most pain. 

To tatianolishka_1:  I don't have any good explaination as to why she had them so young, except to say that it might have been hereditary.  In my case, I've had mine since I was born and I have been able to do nothing about it.  Someone said on another thread that hereditary bunions occur in only like 10% of cases or something like that.  Poor fitting shoes don't help the matter, but, as you said, she probably was able to get good fitting shoes.  I think she may have gotten some ressessive gene for bunions and her shoes just complicated it throughout her life.

Two Pictures of Anastasia and close ups on her feet.



Note the large side knuckle here.


Both side knuckles can be seen there, thought not as well.

This last one shoes another commen symptom of bunions.  Because the toes form the triangle, the toes bend over eachother when bent.  Though it looks like she has deformed toes here, they are simply overlapped by her first two toes.  THis happens to me too.