Initially, it appears a great and heart-warming article of surgical success – but read between the lines a bit and you’ll see a damming example of all that’s wrong with the current system of medical care for the low-back.

Look for these key points:
1. 10 years of pain!
2. Constant pain.
3. GP and painkillers – sure to work, them!
4. Didn’t, so back to the GP.
5. Referred to surgeon for a life-threatening three-hour operation (though I’d have thought the risk of paralysis that she mentions, the MRSA, anaesthetic induced death and, well, just death was not likely or serious enough to stop her having this operation as she had been in constant pain for 10 years!)
6. “The beauty of this operation is that it doesn’t constitute major spinal surgery”!
7. £10,000!

So, here it is:
“Around eight in ten Britons are affected by back pain at some time in their lives. Anne Baker, 65, a retired shopkeeper living in Sheffield, had a pioneering procedure to cure her debilitating back ache. She tells ANGELA EPSTEIN her story.

Pioneering surgery: Anne Baker can now enjoy life after having spinal fusion
THE PATIENT
My back has always been a problem, particularly after playing golf or lifting things. But over the past decade, it slowly worsened until I was in constant pain.

I went to my GP, who said it was wear and tear in my spine and gave me painkillers. Unfortunately, the benefit was only short term — I had a constant nagging pain in the centre of my back, which made me stoop, and I couldn’t hold my head up properly without being in immense pain. I was forced to give up golf and increasingly relied on my husband to do jobs around the house. He even had to fasten buttons on the back of my clothes.

It reached a point, five years ago, where even lying in bed was uncomfortable and the only way I could get a moment’s sleep was by half-sitting up on the sofa. As well as being in awful pain, I was exhausted all the time, which made me miserable.

I went back to my GP — after several appointments in previous months — in desperation, thinking there must be something that could be done. The painkillers were now having little effect so he referred me to a specialist, Lee Breakwell.

Although I was afraid of surgery — I’d heard stories of people coming out even worse after very invasive operations — there seemed to be no alternative. It was either an operation or a wheelchair and I was already practically housebound, so what was there to lose? A scan revealed one of the discs in my spine had degenerated so badly over the years that it had slipped out of place, causing the vertebra on top to tilt downwards by 30 degrees. Without the cushioning effect of the disc, two of my vertebrae were resting on each other, which was causing the dreadful pain.

So I was amazed when Mr Breakwell said that he could cure me using a new technique which was much less invasive than the conventional procedure. First I would need the disc removed — usually the vertebrae on either side would then be ‘fused’ together using screws: this stops the movement and the pain. But, instead, Mr Breakwell said he would use a bone graft, which helped the vertebrae to fuse better together, with fewer complications. I was a bit nervous about having a general anaesthetic and couldn’t help worrying that if something went wrong, that would mean being paralysed.

Although I was very sore from the stitches when I came round, incredibly, the constant nagging pain in my back was gone. The feeling was indescribable. The day after the operation, I could stand up straight without that terrible pain. The nurses helped me with exercises which I continued to do at home after being discharged, five days later.

Within three weeks, I could stand up straight without any pain. It was astonishing to see myself in the mirror after so long stooping — I seemed to have grown an inch-and-a-half.

Progress was slow, and I had to walk using crutches for seven weeks. But I could sit up properly and lie down flat without any discomfort after a couple of weeks — a milestone after sleeping on a sofa for two years. About six months later, I was able to play golf for the first time in four years. I’m constantly aware of my good fortune — even little things such as fastening the buttons on my dress.

Before the surgery, I felt like an old woman and thought my future was a wheelchair and pain for the rest of my life. Now, I can wear nice clothes and high heels and play golf. I even have a perfect swing, as the metal rod in my back helps keep my hips straight! It’s like being given a whole new lease of life.

THE SURGEON
…[To begin the three-hour operation, I made a 10cm vertical incision in the small of the back along the spine, and peeled back the spinal muscles to reveal the base and bones of the spine. I then drilled into the vertebrae on either side of the damaged disc and stabilised them with small screws in order to remove the disc (a disc is around 10mm high and four cm in diameter). I packed a teaspoon of bone graft — grated bone, which is better absorbed by the body than solid bone, taken from Anne’s pelvis during the operation — into a banana-shaped piece of plastic (a ‘spacer’) about 10mm high with a hole through it. The plastic is then placed into the space where the disc used to be, so that the bone from the graft can grow and fuse with the joints on either side. The bone graft doesn’t need any treatment to prompt it to grow. However, the adjacent joints need still to be in order, to keep the space open for the new bone to grow in. I do this by locking little screws into the joints. The bone graft takes between six and 12 weeks before it gets taken up by the body and turned into proper bone.

While the bone graft doesn’t act as a new disc, it makes that part of the spine solid and puts an end to the pain previously being caused by a jarring damaged disc.

We need discs in our back to provide shock absorbency for the spine. However, missing one disc shouldn’t matter too much, as we have other discs to compensate. The beauty of this operation is that it doesn’t constitute major spinal surgery [!]. The procedure is quite localised, yet it can cure a disabling disc problem. It relieves pain and enables the patient to function normally again.
Anne’s return to the golf course is a wonderful example of this. And it should solve her problem for life.

The operation is available on the NHS. It costs £10,000 privately.”

Good grief, why didn’t they spend a little time and money (I’d estimate about 1/33th of what they paid for the operation alone) on some early care in the first few years and maybe, just maybe, none of this madness would have had to happen.

Now, I am really glad that Anne is functioning well and that the surgery was a success but I am appalled at the loss of a decade of her life due to medical mismanagement.

“Glastonbury Spring Water appreciates the need in reducing / off setting our carbon footprint where at all possible. When taking on our new build at Park Corner Farm, Glastonbury, the environment & climate change heavily influenced the way we carried out the design.
We developed a run down council farm into a state of the art production facility with every aspect of the design encompassing recyclable or renewable materials wherever possible. All bricks in the build were reclaimed from the previous farm buildings. Sheep’s wool was used as insulation for the roof. Under floor heating installed with a ground source heat pump to warm the offices & production areas & solar panels introduced to provide hot water for our bottling plant.

A reed bed sewerage waste system completed the installation. Now the plant is fully operational all plastics, bottles & wrapping are recycled locally as well as cardboard.

Our water is bottled at source onsite from our own borehole, no tankering is involved at any stage

“Other Recycling Initiatives”
As from December 07 all our drivers will carry PDA’s to eliminate the use of paper.
We are continually tree planting to expand our orchards at Park Corner.
If you are interested in our build or any of the schemes running at Park Corner including our higher level stewardship we would be more than happy for you to pay us a visit.”

Cool, eh? I might set up a visit.

Rowing is up there amongst the most demanding of sports to train for if you are going to do well and to succeed you need to be able to train hard – and we mean well beyond mere mortal levels of a run round the Downs once a week.

CoBRC winners

I am really pleased that we are involved in keeping these lot working well and will even risk putting a fiver on them to come good at Henley.

Researchers say that people with low back pain are at increased risk for chronic problems if they are in poor general health or have psychiatric illnesses. Additional predictors of future chronic pain include impairment in performing activities of daily living and difficulty coping with pain.

Poor pain coping behaviors include avoidance of work, movement, or other activities out of fear the activities will damage or worsen the back. The researchers also say that some patients tend to have “excessively negative thoughts and statements about the future,” which allows them to rationalize reasons to avoid physical activity or ignore the recommendations of their doctors.

Now, you and I are familiar with this feeling – in efficient (but ugly) American language it can be described as feeling ‘pumped’ or ‘wired’, and it is a good thing. However, what many of us now experience is the effect of this turbo running at less than full power but continuously, and we are just not designed to take these levels of high RPM for sustained periods of time. Eventually we are unable to cope with the demands and we start to feel burned out. Clearly, as we are all slightly different, we stop behaving in a positive way start to feel burned out at slightly different RPM levels. This is feeling is stress.

The symptoms are, I suspect, all too familiar. They start with feeling anxious and distracted and we become more irritable and self-absorbed. If the stress levels are maintained we may start to have physical changes occurring such as developing fatigue, headaches, chest pains, dizziness and depression with all the consequences this has for work and social life.

However, there are a whole lot of really effective things we can do to keep this stress under control. The first thing to do is to identify the cause, which may be far trickier than you first imagine and some counselling (no, really!) may help with this. Then start to try and tackle these stressors and reduce them – and this, I acknowledge, is far easier said than done.

Concurrently, you must try to reduce the physical aspect of stress. This is best done using those classic, proven and effective stress reducing activities such as meditation, sport and relaxation. If these first tier activities fail you then I’d suggest you start to look wider at one of the following excellent stress reducing therapies:
• Massage
• Reflexology
• Alexander Technique
• Pilates
If this isn’t your cup of relaxing green tea then I suggest you try another route which is:
• Neurolingustic Programming (google it, if I were you)
• Clinical Hypnotherapy
both of which are extremely powerful ways of tackling life and so reducing stress. And, it is no coincidence (and no surprise, I suspect) that we provide all of the above at the clinic.
Stress is debilitating and needs positive action if it is to be successfully controlled but the good news is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel as these methods are proven and effective.

Dwight Freeney’s ankle injury was a major story in the run-up to the Superbowl. The Colts kept their cards close to the chest on the whole matter though some details have leaked as to what they did to treat the issue.

They are very active with their treatments and Freeney is using some methods that have helped him in the past. The main one is Dr. Leon Mellman, Freeney’s Chiropractor, who was making sure not only his ankle is getting the proper care, but is also monitoring how his newly guarded walk is effecting the rest of his body. Most notably how his lower back could be adversely affected due to his newly acquired limp.

Freeney’s injury was being treated as any other low ankle sprain would be in the NFL with some minor tweaks. Although he was seen in a supporting boot very recently, he spoke openly about keeping the motion in the ankle joint to promote healing. This became common place in joint surgeries; where immediately following the surgery, the joint are put into passive motion to prevent adhesion build-up and promote a quicker recovery. Freeney was spotted walking the beach without his boot on, most likely advised by team doctors for the same reason: a quicker recovery.

F8.

In our view, the constellation of the evidence of:
1. the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of chiropractic management of low-back pain.

2. the untested, questionable or harmful nature of many current medical therapies .

3. the economic efficiency of chiropractic care for low-back pain compared with medical care.

4. the safety of chiropractic care.

5. the higher satisfaction levels expressed by patients of chiropractors, together

offers an overwhelming case in favor of much greater use of chiropractic services in the management of low-back pain.

And isn’t this really what it is all about – are patients satisfied with the treatment we offer – the answer is an overwhelming yes.

Now let’s see what the response is from the butter board or whatever it’s called.

Sports Massage Therapy – Dec 09

Hope you like it