Key takeaways:
- Doug's back trouble began decades ago with injuries from Scout camp, EMS lifting, and firefighting, and later scans showed severe degenerative osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and compression fractures.
- Specialists tried injections and nerve ablations for his worsening low back pain, but nothing really helped.
- Within six weeks of Nerva's self-hypnosis and education program, his IBS quieted down and he could again eat the foods he enjoyed without stress and anxiety.
- Completing the six-week Relio program did not erase his back pain, but he now understands how pain works and has resumed activities like walking, shopping, and playing with his granddaughter.
The onset of Doug’s back pain
I guess my back pain problem started way back in my life. 60 years ago I was at Boy Scout summer camp and a friend, and I decided to climb a partially fallen tree. I missed a branch and fell about 5 feet through the branches and landed on my back. I was sore for a few days but pushed through it.
Years later I was an Emergency Medical Technician with the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) squad while in college. In those days there were no pneumatic patient cots and all patients had to be manually lifted to the cot, the cot lifted into the ambulance and then unloaded at the hospital.
Some of our patients were a bit of a challenge to lift, especially the large football players out on the field. I managed to strain my low back muscles on a number of occasions, each resulting in several days of light duty.
After college I joined a volunteer fire-EMS department which again brought about more challenges to my low back. This job required extricating victims from car wrecks, carrying patients down flights of house stairs and working in all sorts of uncomfortable positions. This resulted in more low back strains, pulled muscles and time off work.
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