Mark and his troublesome back
Mark, a 38-year old computer programmer, had been getting low back pain for several years. 2 years ago he had a very bad episode that left him bent double and in extreme pain for several weeks. Since then he has been fairly good but has stopped playing tennis and cricket because he was scared to ‘put his back out again’. Last week, whilst putting his 6-month old baby girl to bed, he heard a loud cracking noise and experienced intense pain in his lower back causing him to almost fall to his knees. Since then he has been off work and ‘drugged up to the eyeballs’ on prescribed medication.
On examination Mark had an obvious curve in his spine going off to one side. He could barely put any weight on his left leg and was bent double. He was visibly sweating from the exertion and pain of getting to the consulting room. After a thorough examination it was revealed that Mark had injured a disc in his lower spine and while the pain was intense the injury was not putting pressure on any nerves. When he was finally lying down in a comfortable position it was possible to see how much protective spasm there was around the spine and, luckily for Mark, it seemed the injury was more superficial than first thought. It was decided that due to his previous disc injury his back had become more sensitive in order to prevent future problems and had gone into an exaggerated spasm, mimicking the posture he went through 2 years ago.
Mark was given advice on how to relieve his symptoms and what he should and shouldn’t do in the short-term. He was given 3 sessions of treatment to reduce the pain and muscle spasm until he was 80% better. Mark then opted to continue treatment for a further 3 sessions spaced out over 3 months to improve the general mobility in his spine and help to reduce the sensitivity from his first injury. As he gained confidence he felt that his spine was ‘freer’ than it had been in years and decided to go back to playing tennis and cricket, which he had sorely missed.