John Galt
New Member
Hello everyone, where do I begin. It started with a workplace injury on December 29th, 2013. I am 28 years old, and I have been working as a paramedic for 4 years. I was lifting a patient from the ground to the stretcher when the patient made a sudden move, which forced me off my balance. In my effort to compensate, I tweaked my lower back. I didn't think too much of it at first, but when the pain lingered for many days, I decided that I should take some time off work to allow my back to heal. I took 8 weeks on light administrative duties, and then 4 weeks of work hardening riding as a third medic on a truck. After the 12 weeks with considerable improvement, I decided to return to full duties. During this entire period of time, I was seeing a chiropractor twice per week and having massage once per week. I also did some cold laser therapy during this time period. My MRI showed that I have Schnorl's nodes in several of my lumbar vertebrae, but all of my doctors have told me that these are asymptomatic abnormalities. There were no disc herniation or bulges, and my SI joint did not show any disfunction. My chiropractor told me that the pain was due to my SI joint being locked up. Despite being back at full duties, I still felt some pain and stiffness, and was in constant fear of re-injury. Two weeks ago, I read Dr Sarno's book, Healing Back Pain, and I did notice some improvement in my symptoms. Since then, I have decided to stop all physical treatment. However, sometimes I still have doubts about the TMS diagnosis. Whenever I think about my back injury, or about the possibility of having to change careers, or anything stressful, I notice that my back pain/stiffness feels worse. This indicates to me that there is some mental aspect to my pain. I decided to try the 42 day program to help reinforce the TMS diagnosis, and hopefully resolve this back issue once and for all. Thanks for listening to my story.
