Читать книгу 52 Years Coping with Chronic Back Pain - Alvaro Graña - Страница 8

INTRODUCTION -ME AND MY BACK PAIN

I am writing this book in the hope that I will be helping people out there in the wide world, with similar problems to mine. I have been suffering with chronic back pain since my sports injury in 1961, later aggravated by arthritis in my joints in 2002.

There are many things I have learnt over the years, which I would like to share with you. Things I wish I had known earlier. But this happens in any scenario. In any case it is important to be positive and look forward.

There are many joint pain and back pain sufferers all over the world. I am one of them. It has been a long journey for me with my Chronic Back Pain caused by an injury to my lower back whilst playing basketball at the age of 16 (year 1961). This sport’s injury happened in Lima, Peru, where I was born. After my injury and for quite a while – I will call this period my first phase – I was seen by 2 orthopaedic surgeons from the Mayo Clinic, USA who were visiting Lima at the time. Their diagnosis was that I had broken two vertebrae in my lower back. Their prognosis was not good, medical science was not yet advanced enough for them to offer any treatment beyond a referral to a physiotherapist. They said that in the future surgery might be possible. They also warned me that my condition would deteriorate slowly and that in the worse case scenario I might end up in a wheelchair.

My sport’s injury happened whilst playing basketball. I was jumping to get the ball at the same time as a player from the opposing team also jumped causing a mid-air collision. I landed awkwardly on my hands and knees, and my opponent landed on my back. A number of people, including my coach, said they heard the sound of my bones cracking, which resulted in a long-lasting injury. During this phase just after the injury and right through the 1960s I was in constant pain. I was prescribed valium, anti-inflammatories and pain killers. The side effects were horrendous. I even became addicted to valium and it took me a long time and great determination to beat the addiction. I was on strong prescribed medication for forty years until I decided to try alternative solutions, which I will cover later.

In 1973 I came to England (London) to pursue post-graduate studies, I was living with chronic pain all down my spine and my right leg in spite of the strong medication. I will expand on this later.

The start of my second phase was when I decided to look into my condition in greater detail, though I still did not grasp the seriousness of my injury.

My advice would be not to leave it all to your doctor, take action, be pro-active and find out as much about your condition as possible. Speak to other health professionals, search books and the internet, and listen to other people who have experienced pain themselves and have discovered coping mechanisms.

From now on my personal experiences will be in bold and in a different font.