Spinal injury

My experience of back pain began ironically at a moment of great joy for me and my wife in June 2003—just before the birth of our second child. A few days before my wife went into labour, I sneezed, and so began a sequence of events that still affect me today. I never had a weak back before this, but I sneezed, fell to the floor, and it took three months for me to get straight again. The pain was horrendous. I saw my general practitioner immediately and was referred to a surgeon at the local NHS hospital. I waited about 12 months for this appointment. I have a little dog, and if I’d have left her in pain for so long I’d have been prosecuted for cruelty by the RSPCA. I had some physiotherapy treatment and had to take amitryptiline , co-codamol, and diclofenac, and that is unpleasant. When my back went into spasm I had to have diazepam as well. Sometimes I used an ice pack belted on to numb my back totally, to enable me to do things I had to do.

My GP kept signing sick notes for time off work, and I visited a chiropractor. As far as I know, my GP did not press the hospital, perhaps because he thought it would make no difference. Finally he gave me the telephone number of a back surgeon who works both privately and within the NHS, whom I saw privately. At his suggestion, because of NHS waiting lists of between nine and 12 months, I paid £650 to have scans done privately. The surgeon said I had a prolapsed disc …