Pain of any sort in the back can be an extremely uncomfortable and debilitating experience, which can affect the whole body. Sadly for me I've suffered my entire life, having been born with a dislocated hip, which wasn't discovered until I was thirteen months old. The doctors tried all the old tricks of triple nappying, hooking me up to a massive semi-circle metal frame and rotating my leg, sadly in the end it took three surgeries and months of being in plaster from ankles to armpits to put it right.
But that wasn't the end of it, as due to the defect my pelvis had rotated and shot all my vertebrae out to compensate and this really wasn't checked as I was growing up. In my teen growth spurt stages I'd have days where I couldn't get out of bed due to back problems, but you just learn to deal with it. These days it's the compression in my lower spine that causes the most issues, today is a bad day and I don't want to move from my bed and have succumbed to the heavy duty pain-killers. I've always been an active person, so learning to support and make sure I'm not putting too much strain on my back has always been very important. I have good days and bad days with it. A couple of years ago I managed to smash the S3 in my Coccyx whilst snowboarding, which really hasn't helped at all and I'm constantly told to stop doing all these crazy extreme sports that I love.
A few of my friends have had to give up wakeboarding and snowboarding due to major back issues. One really good friend has recently undergone spinal fusion, otherwise he was told he would end up in a wheel chair - but there was no way he was going to stop jumping out of planes or hitting the slopes or water.
Why are back issues such a huge problem? I look at the way we go about daily life and we take our backs for granted, we lift things the wrong way (always use your legs, don't bend at the back), ergonomics are terrible - basic things like not having arms on chairs that go under desks, have computer screens at eye level, have keyboards at a mid-level, you know laptops are the worst thing ever? Because the keyboards are so compact, they force us to hunch over, bring our arms in and work in with a terrible posture, the best this is to plug in a full sized keyboard and get a laptop stand. Driving positions can be bad. Constant twisting in work stations. It's no wonder that so many of us are constantly seeking treatment from professionals.
Look after your back, replacing your spine is not an option.
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