Welcome to The Back Pain Blog!
The Back Pain Blog, as it’s name so cleverly suggests is all about back pain and the effect that it can have on daily life. Rather than a regurgitation of stories from around the net, well actually there is a bit of that too, but most of the articles are written from my own experiences of living with chronic back pain and as such I have a bit of background as to why this site exists. Don’t worry, I will try and keep the boring details to a minimum!
My Story
Working as a Motor Mechanic I had always had an aching back, some days were worse than others but mostly it did not bother me too much. In 2002 my partner Belinda and I decided to start our own business. We had just sold our first house and had managed to upgrade to a better house with change left over and it seemed wise to do something useful with the money we had.
Initially the business was set up as a mobile operation, operating out of the back of a trailer hauled around by a newly aquired 4×4. This was probably my first mistake as a lot of heavy lifting (the trolley jack for one) was required when we reached each job. Business could not have been better and in 2003 we moved into a workshop not far from home as the travelling time involved in the mobile operation was eating into the number of jobs we could do in a day.
After moving to the workshop the business continued to do well and I remember working crazy hours, six and sometimes seven days a week. What I was not mindful of at the time was my self-preservation habits. If we had an engine on the floor and it was in the way I would simply drag it out of the way and instead of using the gearbox jack I would lift gearboxes into place from the floor without even thinking about it. Using the right equipment took too long when there was so much work to get through each day. These stupid habits coupled with leaning over bonnets the rest of the time led to my downfall.
Late September in 2005 the back pains became more frequent and I can distinctly remember sitting on the bullbar of a Landcruiser and bending down to fit a new radiator when I felt something let go in my lower back. The pain was incredible and after getting myself down off the cruiser I crawled to the phone and rang Belinda to come and help me.
The next few weeks were spent dosed up with pain killers, going from Doctor’s appointment to Doctor’s appointment, trying to carry on some work to keep the doors of the workshop open. By December 2005 I had had enough and we turned over the business to a good friend who was renting some workshop space from us at the time. My intention was to have a break for a couple of weeks and start doing mobile repairs again after Christmas.
Christmas came and went with no improvement in my back pain, Easter came and went also and by this time the money was running low and so was my confidence that I would be able to work on cars again. We paid a visit to our local Social Security office and after a bit of stuffing around I was put on a Disability Allowance. After making good money for so many years this was the first big shock that I got, it was about a quarter of what we made with the business!
So here we are in May of 2009 and still I am dependent on pain killers, we are no closer to finding out the exact cause of my pain than we were in 2005, although I do know a lot of conditions that it isn’t! After years of lessened activity I now believe that a lot of my back pain is muscular and although I am working towards rectifying this, it is a hard, long road to travel by the looks of things.
There are so many things that I would do differently if I had the chance. I thought I was being smart working my b**t off for a few years and then taking things easy. Looking back, that time would never have come and I would have continued to work hard while I was able and the work was there. Also now I can see that at the time my partner and two children (we have since had a third) were suffering and I was stupid for thinking my time was best spent working hard to provide for them in a monetary sense only.
With little that modern medicine can do for me at this stage I am content (for the moment at least) to survive on the pain killers and keep trying different therapies and the like for long term relief. One thing that I am only now just starting to enjoy is the change in lifestyle that this situation has brought to me. I am now the ‘official stay at home parent’ and I am slowly adapting to the responsibilities that come with the title. So it’s not all bad, I get to write this blog which I enjoy and can now focus on what is really important in life – family.
That sums up my/our story in a nutshell, if you would like to share your story with us please do so by using the comment form below or alternatively the Contact Us page, we’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for stopping by!
Craig
Your story is one of many and you are right. After ready through a lot of your articles and your story it seems you are searching for what the doctors should have been searching for which is what is causing the pain in your back.
Like is it Sciatica from, muscles, herniation, disc bulge, etc. There are so many things that could be causing your back pain and once you find out exactly what it is you can deal with it.
I really dont know your feeling about chiropractors but it is a safe alternative for you to try. If you go three time and dont feel a difference then its probably not going to work for you or you are just at a bad chiropractors office. I hate when chiropractors try to sucker patients into three visits a week for three weeks and keeps patients coming in. Just fix the problem and send them on your way.
Anyways I wish you the best and hope you finally feel as you did when you were 10
Hi Craig,
I am sorry to hear about your back injury and ongoing problems. I have started a new blog myself, where I outline a program that worked well for my own back. It is called The Slow Path to a Healthy Back. It is a realistic and gentle approach to getting your back healthy again, one day at a time. I hope you will check it out, and that it will be of some help.
I would like to share an experience I have had with helping to solve my neck and back problems. I actually broke several bones in my neck (transverse processes) when I was about ten years old and was playing with my Dad’s chest expanders. I let go off one end and – WHACK – that was the end those bones.
Thankfully, I didn’t seem to have any long term effect but now that I am older – in my 50s -I have started to find that my neck clicks a lot and referred pain to my teeth, arms and also to my back happens more and more. It can cause severe headaches and a feeling that my head really isn’t where it should be.
To cut a long story short, after a long flight – 11 hours and then 5 hours my neck and back were really playing up – affecting my visions and actual uncontrollable twitching. I started to do very gentle stretching exercises – 30 touch my toes (actually I can’t!) and then I started to work on a few exercises from a book I found on Amazon called, Butt Perfect – it is actually designed to tone the butt but I found the exercises to be gentle and easy to do. And I figured if it helps the butt it must help the lower back.
I am doing about 5 minutes every other day and find an improvement. I’m sure it won’t work for everyone but for me my neck has stopped clicking and my back feels a little stronger. I will keep going and see what happens. It does seem to make sense that by helping the muscles in the buttocks that they would help support the lower back and in turn other parts of the back and neck.
Thanks for sharing your story Phil, I hope your improvement continues and hopefully that book will help someone else also.
Thanks again,
Craig