Living with back pain

Nearly 5 million working days per year are lost because of back pain/injury. Many people are unable to work in the career of their choice due to this problem. I know all about this. I suffered a stress fracture in my L2 vertebrae in a car accident i 1988 and have had problems ever since. About 3 years ago, this problem got to the point where I had to do something. Occasional trips to the Osteopath brought temporary relief, but there was a definite deterioration. A trip to the specialist and an MRI scan brought bad news. It seems that I'd have to have an operation and be laid up for 3 months. Now being self employed, this was a problem. I said this to the specialist, who replied that most people who had this problem, as show by the MRI were begging him to do the op immediately. I said that it was bad, but not that bad. He recommended a course of physiotherapy to see if it could be relieved by this. His words were "It probably won't make much difference, but if you can manage, it may help for a while". Anyway, I duly booked in to see the physio, who felt that she could help. Amazingly enough, after a single session, I walked out without pain for the first time in years. She'd managed, by stretching & massage to relieve the pressure on the nerve. Although the effects were temporary, it was a fantastic experience to be pain free. Like taking the finest recreational drug. I felt a real high.

More physio and some advice from Julie, my physio. She said "Loose some weight and do more exercise". Now I'm 6'1" and at the time weighed 17 1/2 stone. Although I've always played 5 a side football once a week, I realised I'd got out of shape. I joined a gym and started a new regime. I now go 3/4 times a week and do one of the following - warm up - stretches and 200 ab crunches, followed by either - 10km row (approx 40 mins) or 2km row (7.45 mins) & 14Km cycle (25 mins). On a friday I do a yoga class. Since then my weight has dropped to 15 3/4 stone. My back is still occasionally painful, but is managable and I can relieve it with various stretches. Recently I had a problem with the upper back and went to see the Oesteopath (Dominic Eglinton - highly recommended).

After sorting out the upper back problem, he commented how much better the lower back seemed and how much more flexible the spine generally seemed. He asked what I'd been doing. His verdict? If all his customers did this he'd go out of business. I'm a bit unlucky as I can't take Ibuprofen which would relieve much of the problems I have. The specialist still thinks that at some point in the next 5-10 years, I'll be in begging for the operation. I intend to do my damnedest to prove him wrong.