Story #7 - Tom Haliburton, After over 25 years with chronic back pain finally a solution!
Thanks to Dr. SARNO’s book - Healing Back Pain - The Mindbody Prescription where Dr. SARNO shares his thinking about psychosomatic disorders, introduces Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS), and explains how the brain and emotions are the source of most of the misunderstood symptoms which people experience today, I can actually say that my pain is all but gone.
My Story,
In 1982 while playing a game of flag football with other students in my 1st year of university I was knocked to the ground (yes I missed the catch). I wasn’t able to get back to my feet because of immense pain in my lower back. When I finally was able to stand, the pain in my lower back was so intense that I could not take more than a baby step to move. The pain was so intense that tears were flowing from my eyes. I was rushed to the hospital and after waiting for what seemed hours (I couldn’t bend to sit down) they sent an intern in to see me. After X-rays were taken, she pulled and pushed my legs, all while I was screaming in pain (picture a 6ft. 1in. 20 year old man screaming). At the end, the diagnosis was that nothing was wrong, just get more exercise. (At the time I was as fit as any athletic 20 year old).
I left the hospital still not able to walk and suffered for the next few days, crawling to the washroom and otherwise laying on my bed. After several days, a friend in my dorm gave me the name of a chiropractor he had used. I had never visited a chiropractor before but anything to reduce the pain & allow me to walk was worth trying.
When I got to the chiropractor with my X-rays he immediately diagnosed that I had displaced vertebrae in my lower back and twisted vertebrae in my upper back. He had me lie on his table and within minutes I felt immense relief. It was a miracle so I returned to him every day for the next month and then every other day for the rest of the school year. He also prescribed 3 months of bed rest. (Imagine being in a University dorm 1st year of university and told you had to be in bed for 3 months!!). Well I did it but the pain never really subsided. Instead I built up a tolerance (Thanks to Robaxacet –C with Codeine) and just lived my life but with much less physical activity and always being cautious that I might hurt my back further.
For the next 25 years I would continue seeing chiropractors. It started at 3 times a week and slowly it became once a month, once every 3 months, or as needed. Basically every time I felt my back getting to a point of unmanageable pain that I couldn’t control I would visit. Each visit brought minor relief but it only lasted 1-2 days. Throughout this time I would have major flare-ups where my back would go into spasm so intensely that I would again find myself unable to stand and need to crawl to the washroom or to get a drink, etc. Each episode lasted 3-4 days and took weeks for the pain to actually subside back to its ‘normal’ level. These episodes would occur at least once a month for many years. Only in the past 4-5 have they subsided to approximately 1-2 per year.
Over the years I tried massage, infrared therapy, stretch therapy, many muscle creams and other treatments, all with very temporary or no relief.
After 25 years I was getting to the end of my rope with the nagging pain. I asked my doctor to get me a MRI. He did and the results showed a degenerated disc in my lower back. (AHA! Proof something was at the root of all of this.). The prognosis: normal degeneration for someone in their late 40s. No relief.
I was resigned to keep taking Robaxacet-C when needed, and continue to live with the pain.
Then I met Will Sacks in June 2010!
After a brief conversation with Will the topic turned to back pain and he told me about Dr. SARNO’s book - Healing Back Pain - The Mindbody Prescription. I was very intrigued. (I got my degree in psychology. No not what I started out for, but what can you do when in bed for 3 months other than learn a lot about people.) Since I think no option should be ignored, I took down the name and was planning to pick up the book in a few days. The following week when I saw Will again he gave me a copy of the book. I sat down the next evening and read ½ the book. Wow what a concept. The mind actually causes the body to have a real physical problem (e.g. back spasms) in order to manage stress. Well my life was full of negative stress from a million things (…but that’s another story). Interestingly as I looked back in time I could map some of my major pain episodes to increases in negative stress.
DR SARNO’s explanation was that the pain was real, and that my body was probably storing lactose acid in and around where I was hurting. It seemed logical.
The following evening I finished Dr. SARNO’s book.
I let myself believe it wasn’t all in my head (it just started in there). I took some time to look back at my life and identified a number of times I could remember having major pain episodes. Being a guy that believes I have to do 110% in everything I do, and expect that others won’t necessarily get it done when working on something with me, it was easy to notice a link between my pain and times when I was frustrated with my progress or worried about something. I reflected on my past and the way I was thinking about how I always expected to have to pick up the pieces for everyone. This created a mental breakthrough for me around my continuous tension. Perhaps I was being unrealistic with myself and others.
Over the next 2 weeks an interesting thing began to occur. I noticed my pain had subsided yet nothing in my world had changed. My stress level is still very high (I am in the early stages of starting my own business).The only real change was reading Dr. SARNO’s book.
It has been 2 months since I read the book and I am thrilled to say that I have been virtually pain free for that time. When an occasional symptom arises I simply tell myself to stop and look at what might be stressing me out and ask myself to believe it may simply be my mind trying to tell me to relax and the pain begins to go away!
I give credit to Dr. Sarno’s book and its straight forward approach to understanding stress in creating the opportunity to unlock the strange but real pain I was experiencing. I hope my story will encourage others to explore the book and see if it can help them in managing their pain. It has been a godsend for me.
Wishing you good health!
Tom Haliburton
Toronto Ontario Canada
(416) 402 0364
