Dr. Rachel’s Experience with Back Pain

An estimated one billion people worldwide suffer from back pain. Back pain is the biggest single cause of disability in the world. One in four adults experience back pain in their lifetime. I am the one in four adults that experiences it. I also experienced it when I was a kid.

Back Pain as a Child

The first time I remember experiencing back pain was at my ninth birthday party. We went trampolining. I took a bounce and felt immediate pain in my low back. I had to sit out the rest of the trampolining time. For days, my back hurt when I went on my toes or tried to jump. Luckily, I was a resilient kid and this pain did not last long. The next time, I was not as lucky.

Adult Back Pain

I think I was in third year university when my most memorable episode came around. It must have been February at the time. I had a job score-keeping intramural basketballs game. Before my shift started, I had gone to the gym and spent 20 minutes on the elliptical. Halfway through my shift, I went to stand up and almost fell over from the weakness and stabbing pain in my back. It hurt with all motions and sitting through the rest of that game was almost unbearable. It took me twice as long compared to normal to walk home when I was done my shift. My back hurt all the time. Sleeping, studying, walking, cooking it was all painful. After a week, the pain started to subside. Probably a couple weeks later I felt back to normal.

That’s when I went back to regular activity and re-aggravated my back, playing badminton. The pain wasn’t as severe, but it still made daily living a struggle. It healed faster this time, but that year I kept re-aggravating it. I played soccer throughout the summer and I would start to feel my back “going out”, so I would stop and stretch it out. I realized that summer that I kept stressing my back doing handstands in the pool. Once I stopped doing those so much, my back pain became less noticeable and pain rarely occurred.

Since then, I have not had a bad episode. My back does get stiff and ache every now and then, but nothing as debilitating.

What did I do?

I did what we recommend for most patients with mechanical low back pain. Mobility exercises progressing to core strengthening exercises, chiropractic treatment, ice and heat. Right now, I am trying to be proactive about my spinal health trying to exercise often, maintain good posture and receive chiropractic adjustments. Fingers crossed a bad episode does not happen again but with my history of back pain and my familial disposition, it is likely. Therefore, I must do everything I can to keep myself and my back, healthy.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us.