Jamie E's story
Learn how Jamie has overcome his lower back musculoskeletal pain through mindfulness, movement and meditation
Jamie is 41 years, married and has 3 boys. His hobbies are lifting weights and boxing.
Jamie developed back pain after lifting weights. He went on to have spinal surgery (a discectomy) and a nerve root sleeve injection and was queued up for a spinal fusion. He loved his job, but was unable to complete his normal day’s work, even though he had a very supportive work environment.
He sought second opinions from different health practitioners before agreeing to have the spinal fusion. He was spending most of his day lying down, he was taking a lot of different pain medicines, he was overly protective of his back and was fearful of moving in case he injured his back further.
“All I was doing was laying around, I didn’t know what else to do.”
A week before Jamie’s scheduled surgery, his trajectory changed. He was fortunate to be guided down a different path by a very skillful experienced health practitioner.
“He said you don’t need a fusion, you’ve given yourself a fusion.”
“He gave me some stretches and got me to ride an exercise bike too. I thought I can’t do that…”
Once he knew what to do differently and how to do it, Jamie was able to work through his back pain.
“What I know now is that everything I was doing was counter-productive to my recovery. I wasn’t living I was just existing, and badly.”
Jamie is now back at work, doing all his recreational hobbies, engaging with friends and family and is very confident about his back.