Haha, yeah - I did think I was sounding a bit Jimmae there for a minute!
I was thinking about throwing a bit of bone vibration into the story, but then my whole post probably would not have been taken seriously....
When my back injury first flared up, I was amazed at how little the general medical world knew about back injuries and how to treat them properly. The general advice is to rest, take NSAIDs and then see a physio for some stretches and recovery exercises (which are generally useless, unless it is just a minor twinge). After trying all the usuals without success, I ended up seeing an Osteopath and then getting dry needling done, which was not only incredibly painful, but also made it flare up worse to the point that I couldn't walk.
Next thing I know I was seeing a sports doctor - Dr Chris Bradshaw - the long time Geelong and Collingwood club doctor and he was all about scans, cortisone injections and operations. After a MRI, he was "Ah yeah, bulging disc at L4/L5 compressing the sciatic nerve, we can try a nerve root block (a CT-guided cortisone injection that involves a needle that goes about 100mm into your back, next to your spine) and see if that works (it did for about 3 days), otherwise we will book you in with a surgeon to cut that part of the disc out". I asked if it was really necessary to go straight to surgery and he said "Have a look at Brad Ottens. He has been struggling with back issues for ages and surgery was the only thing that fixed him".
So I met with a surgeon and after he explained the risks of the procedure (nicked spinal cords, permanent nerve damage, permanent numbness etc), I left and went down the rabbit hole of searching for a natural remedy. It turns out there are plenty of people who know how to treat back injuries, they just don't subscribe to the "Let's treat the symptoms and not the underlying problem" mantra.
All back injuries are different and people's bodies are different, so there's no silver bullet, but understanding the underlying issue and how the musculoskeletal system works goes a long way to finding a treatment that works. I wish I had known that from the start...
