How I Started To Recover

My first step was activity. When I had my private consultation for an MRI scan, and the neurosurgeon advised me that surgery was the only option for my L4/L5 severe right sided disc prolapse, my brain was already aware of what I was going to be told, therefore I did not panic. Given that I had no prior back issues, I was told I had disc degeneration, and that my back pain was hereditary.

Disc degeneration is commonly found in individuals who are also pain free. They may even have the same imaging of the MRI scan as me, however would not feel pain. Waleed Brinjikji, a professor of radiology and neurosurgery, had published a study in which it showed healthy 40 year olds who had an MRI scan, and 68% of those that were examined had disc degeneration. This is normal, and not something that should be alarming. I was lucky that I had this awareness and education beforehand from Georgie Oldfield, and doing my own research, however so many others are not aware, and this would be alarming, just the words alone can frighten somebody who is not familiar with chronic pain.

After reading Fred Amir’s book, Rapid Recovery From Back and Neck Pain, and understanding that I had to really help myself, I made it my focus that I was going to recover. My why was for myself, my family, and to help others that were in this dark tunnel, who felt helpless and lost. I knew pain was going to be my greatest gift. I now had the awareness, education, and belief upon reading a number of books regarding the mind/body connection to understand that my chronic pain was stress induced. I had spoken to the experts who were aware of the mind/body connection, via Georgie Oldfield, and Dr Howard Schubiner, amongst authors of their own recovery journeys, that gave me the reassurance, and support I needed. Upon watching recovery interviews, videos, articles, and speaking to others who had recovered, it was now up to me to put in the hard work.

I realised after downloading the Curable app on my phone that the pain I feared was in my brain. It never got any worse than it already was. I could not hurt myself. I had not hurt myself in the initial stage, so I had to tell my brain that I was perfectly okay. The app made sure that I was in control of my brain and that I was not going to fear the pain anymore.

As my mind and nervous system were now fully relaxed, I knew my first step had to be doing activity, anything to help, so I set about walking daily, and standing for longer than 2 minutes. As it was lockdown, and I was not confident to be seen outside I would initially get up at 5am, in the pitch black and walk on the slabs in the garden. I didn’t feel the cold in the autumn, or winter months as the pain made me feel hot already. It was very painful to start with, and I didn’t do it for long. I would put energetic music on my mobile phone, and listen to it through my earphones to get me motivated.

I would then walk in the living room out of breath after a few minutes and carry on. To measure how I was doing I would write down a daily diary, tracking what my goal was for the day, and how long I would do such an activity. I would attach how I was feeling, and what reward I would give myself. Some days were very hard, and left me unable to do anything, however other days I used to question at certain parts of the day why I did not feel the pain. The neuroplasticity of my brain and the perception of pain needed to be shifted.

When I felt ready I started to walk outside, by writing down my fears, and reframing these fearful thoughts. I would have to sit on the pavement after a few minutes when my nerve pain/ligaments felt tightened in my body, and then I would start to look at the lampposts, and trees as markers for my motivation the next day.

Some days there were no significant improvements, however when I started to look back at my notes that I tracked, I could see how far I came, and this gave me so much motivation to keep on moving.

3 takeaways:

1. Create a daily tracker that's personal to you. Every small win will be significant even though you may not feel it that day, or may not see the results straight away. Be patient.
2. Get a coach who you feel is a right fit after doing your research who can partner with you, and champion you on your healing journey.
3. Make sure your brain has enough evidence to calm your nervous system, through awareness and education that you believe you can heal yourself from chronic pain.

If you need further help, DM me, or go to my website www.mapcoach.co.uk where you can book a free 30 minute discovery call.