In 1996, at the age of 39, I had an argument with a rose bush in our garden.

I wanted it out, and it wanted to stay in. I tried to persuade it to change its mind by pulling as hard as I could, but after a minute or so of fruitless heaving, I got a sudden pain in my lower back. This pain persisted for about three weeks, during which time I found it difficult to do things such as change from a sitting to a standing position or put my socks on. I just had to take things slowly, and eventually, it wore off.

I thought little more of it until, probably over a year later, it “went” again. The only difference was that this time, I hadn’t been putting any excessive strain on it; I had just bent down to pick something up when I was hit by a sudden sharp pain in my lower back. It followed the same pattern as the previous incident in that I was hampered in my movement, before it gradually wore off over the next two or three weeks.
These incidents of my back “going” became more frequent and more debilitating. I went to A&E at North Tees on one occasion when my back had been particularly painful, but after being checked over, I was told that it was probably muscular and that I should take it easy for a while and take some pain-killers. I changed the chair I used at work, and this seemed to improve things for a while, but after about 18 months without an incident, the problems started recurring. I started to become almost frightened of my back, as it seemed it could “go” without warning at any time.

In the summer of 2008, my back went again. This was excruciatingly painful, and for a day afterwards I was unable to walk. When I could walk again (although bent double), I went to see my GP and asked to be referred to a specialist. He referred me to Mr. Krishna, who arranged an MRI scan. This revealed that I had two degenerate discs, one of which was prolapsed. We discussed the options and decided to proceed with a two-level posterior lumber inter-body fusion (“PLIF”). The date for the operation was set for 17th November 2008.

My back never recovered properly from the incident in summer, but exactly one week before the operation got dramatically worse. I spent 4 hours on the living room floor unable to move before eventually crawling up the stairs to bed. The operation took place as planned on the afternoon of 17th November. After the operation, I felt comfortable, but, as I had been warned would probably be the case, did not sleep at all that night. The nursing staff had me on my feet again at 9:00 a.m. the next morning. Later in the morning, I was able to walk the length of the clinic corridor (albeit rather slowly).

I had been advised that I would probably not feel very well for the 24 hours or so after the operation, and this proved to be the case, although at no time was I in any pain. However, by the evening of the day after the operation, I started to feel much better. The following day, I was able to return home.

Once at home, I started to build up the amount of walking. Initially, I just walked “figure-of-eights” around the living-room and dining-room tables, but after a few days, ventured outside to walk around the block. I then built up to going to pick the kids up from school. Within about a week of the operation, I was no longer taking any pain-killers. I had a slight set-back about ten days after the operation when I developed a post operative infection, but this soon cleared up with anti-biotics.

By the week before Christmas, I was feeling well enough to go back to work, but decided to wait until after the holidays. By the end of December, I was walking up to 2½ miles a day without any problems. I returned to work on 5th January, and haven’t had a day off since. Seven months after the operation, I haven’t had a twinge from my back. I can walk up Roseberry Topping (over 1,000 feet high – google it) in under twenty minutes (not as fast as the kids, but fast enough for me). In June, I rode to Spain and back on a motor-bike.

The fear of my back that I had developed over twelve years has gone. My back now gives me no problems at all, and I feel perfectly capable of taking on anything that any other reasonably fit 52-year-old would contemplate. When Mr. Krishna saw my MRI scan he told me that he could fix my back. He has done just that.