Back surgery-some facts.

Back surgery-some facts.

I see many people through the clinic who have either had back surgery or may be considering back surgery. But here’s something you may like to consider as well.

Many news articles are now in fact reporting that back surgery in not more effective than non-surgical methods. One of the major reasons that patients have surgery is that they are generally told that if they don’t have surgery they could get far worse and possibly become paralyzed. That would certainly put the fear of god into me too. However, a New York Times article recently stated, “many surgeons had long feared that waiting would cause severe harm, but those fears were proved unfounded.” The chairman of the department of orthopedic surgery at the University of California said in regards to this “I think this will have an impact. It says you don’t have to rush in for surgery.” Hmmm. Interesting. Very interesting.

The article in the times went on to say “no one who waited had serious consequences, and no one who had surgery had a disastrous result.” Let us just quantify what it means by “no one who had surgery had a disastrous result”. The thing is, in surgical terms it is not considered a “disastrous result” if you have lived in fear of having to  have someone do surgery on your spine and you then are no better after surgery or perhaps even worse. It is not considered a ‘disastrous result’ if you are still living in pain after the surgery and now have other health problems due to the side effects of the drugs you are taking. It is not considered a “disastrous result” because you have lost your job due to the time you had to have off from work to have surgery and rehabilitation. It is not considered a “disastrous result” if you have gained weight after you surgery because you couldn’t exercise after and you are now suffering from other health problems because of it. It is not considered a “disastrous result” if you now have marital or relationship problems or family problems because they think that you are a still whining after your surgery which should have ‘fixed your complaining’. It is not considered a “disastrous result” that you had to pay thousands of dollars to have surgery, have now had to use a large chunk of your savings to live and pay for your rehabilitation because your insurance refused to cover you and you still are unable to return to your old job because of persistent pain after surgery. And of course its not considered a “disastrous result” if you can no longer attend your physiotherapy sessions because your insurer has stopped your payments, you cant afford to pay for them, you are still in agony after surgery and are now in the post surgery/post rehab scrapheap. You are depressed because no one understands your pain. Your are depressed because you are on strong drugs that you never believed you would have to take in your lifetime and it seems no one understands your situation-not even your wife.

I implore you to seek your alternatives, get VERY GOOD advice on your back pain, your sciatica or your disc problem and don’t think that a surgeon’s opinion is the be-all and end-all. Don’t listen to the well meaning advice of your cousin, your neighbor or your best mate.

Over the years I have seen clients who were told by their surgeon or perhaps even two or three surgeons that they needed surgery for their backs and refused. They started getting conservative treatment, did specific exercises, assumed good postural and lifting techniques in their daily lives and are now pain free without the need for surgery.

Just one example:

One of my clients came to me 2 years ago with sciatica in both legs going down to his heels. He had seen three different surgeons who all said that he had to have surgery. They even told him if he didn’t have it now he would need it within six months (the fear of god-it will get worse if you don’t do anything about it scenario-as mentioned above). His surgeon would even call him at his home to ask him when he could schedule a date for surgery. However, my client flatly refused to have surgery on his back. He was referred to me; he had to drive 3 hours from the Caribbean to see me to get his treatment. He did his exercises, he kept good posture at all times, he lifted properly and he is still pain free, sciatica free and surgery free.

If you would like any more information please feel free to email me at

http://boquetespa.com