A Spondylolisthesis Success Story

A Spondylolisthesis Success Story

I have been reading this board and working for the past 12 months, but have never posted. This is to give hope to all you out there with this diagnosis. I am 42 years old, high school and college athlete, have always been into lifting and running and stay very fit. After an episode of back pain I had x rays which diagnosed me with grade 1 spondylolisthesis with a pars defect (broken bone) at L3 and DDD, and bulging disc from the MRI. I was crushed. The ortho said never to lift more than 40lbs and my athletic life is basically over, just try to control the pain, and if that doesn’t work we can do a fusion. I began using Dr. google since I had no clue what spondy was and that was a mistake. Saw all the horror stories. My mind began picturing my life with a cane, wheelchair, etc. because of what I had read. The day of my diagnosis my pain increased 2 fold and continued. Being an athlete all my life, I worked hard with a PT for 2 months, nothing. I tried everything under the sun with no avail. I came across “Healing Back Pain” on the web and ordered the book. After a read I proceeded to lay down the book and called it garbage (after all I have a scientific background, and this was not rational, although I had every personality trait!). Still in pain a month later I read it again, decided this very well could be my ticket avoiding a fusion, I wholly bought in and started working the plan. After a month there was no change. Frustrated I pushed on and forced myself back to the gym and running. Long story short, it took a good 4 months to become pain free. I am back to lifting (heavy weights, deadlifting, squats, etc.) 5 days a week and running. My strength is not back to where I was, but I have no doubts I will get back there. I am 5 months pain free. I simply share this information to give you all hope and encouragement. Although Dr. Google really messed up my head at first with all the negativity about spondy, one remarkable thing I learned from all the recent research is that 6-8% of the population is walking around with this condition without pain (that is 15 million in the US alone!). I praise God for my health and thank Him for somehow, someway leading me to the good doctors book.

 

Awesome, jcroft - thank you for posting!

(PS - perfect length and perfect amount of detail - short and oh so sweet!)

 

Congratulations! Good on you! It is truely amazing how the fact a significant portion of the population are happily walking around, pain free, with any number of conditions, doesn't stop doctors from diagnosing them as the cause of pain.

Would you mind telling us a little more about how you 'worked the plan'? What did that involve for you? Journalling? You mention physical activity. What else did you find useful?

 

I did all the recommendations in Sarno's book plus journaling. But I can tell when things finally changed for me: I stopped fearing. I was afraid if I did anything I would further injure my back. I would fear just turning the wrong way, walking too fast, etc. Like I said, Dr. google has some real horror stories out there of people stuck in pain. The moment I stopped fearing and just started living (including going back to the gym and running) I no longer cared about the pain, yes it hurt, but it was just pain and I was not going to damage anything. Fear turned to anger because I finally saw that I had been tricked by my own brain. Good luck on your journey, hang in there, I was at a point where I thought there would never be success, but you can make it!