At the bookstore
At the bookstore I decide to browse through the medical books, looking for a book on back pain. Not how to cure back pain, I've nearly given up on that. Although some author might have something more to say on the subject than my doctors and my own research have turned up, I imagine that most will be more of the same. "Approximately 80% of Americans experience LBP during their lifetime; however, pain is usually self-limited, and 80-90% of the attacks resolve within 6 weeks. Every year 3-4% of the population is disabled temporarily and 1% of the working-age population is disabled totally and permanently. LBP is second only to the common cold as a cause of lost work time; it is the fifth most frequent cause for hospitalization and the third most common reason to undergo a surgical procedure.
LBP resolves within 6 weeks in 90% of patients; in another 5% of patients, it resolves by the end of 12 weeks; in the remaining 5%, however, LBP becomes chronic. Approximately 50% of patients with sciatica recover within 1 month. Most normal connective tissues heal within 6-12 weeks, unless a pathoanatomic instability persists. Resolution of chronic LBP and sciatica may be impaired by the slower rate of tissue repair in the relatively avascular intervertebral disc." (from eMedicine). That was the first site that came up when I googled Chronic Back Pain. If you go to most of the other sites, they'll say the exact same thing, just with different words.
What I want to find is a book written by someone who's been there. Someone who can write "You're not alone. No matter how crazy you feel sometimes because you have this pain that the doctors can't help, it doesn't mean it's just in your head." Sometimes I think I should write that book. Surely there are other people besides just me who need to hear that.
But at the bookstore, all the books are about how to cure your back pain, or how to stop the pain. One book even talks about how having the right mental attitude will make the pain go away! Don't titles like that make you want to scream? They make me want to. Already we're fighting our own bodies for failing us, our doctors who don't often want to put the effort into making a real diagnosis because Chronic Back Pain is enough of a title and it's an excuse for a doctor not to have to search harder since nearly all doctors know that most back pain isn't diagnosised, and even sometimes those close to us who think that because we want to get out and be around other people or because we try to not to show our pain all the time, that we must be feeling well enough to go back to our normal lives. And the books don't help. They make it sound like if we just fight harder, everything can and will go back to normal.
Well, it won't. Fighting harder just wears you out quicker and makes you hurt more.
LBP resolves within 6 weeks in 90% of patients; in another 5% of patients, it resolves by the end of 12 weeks; in the remaining 5%, however, LBP becomes chronic. Approximately 50% of patients with sciatica recover within 1 month. Most normal connective tissues heal within 6-12 weeks, unless a pathoanatomic instability persists. Resolution of chronic LBP and sciatica may be impaired by the slower rate of tissue repair in the relatively avascular intervertebral disc." (from eMedicine). That was the first site that came up when I googled Chronic Back Pain. If you go to most of the other sites, they'll say the exact same thing, just with different words.
What I want to find is a book written by someone who's been there. Someone who can write "You're not alone. No matter how crazy you feel sometimes because you have this pain that the doctors can't help, it doesn't mean it's just in your head." Sometimes I think I should write that book. Surely there are other people besides just me who need to hear that.
But at the bookstore, all the books are about how to cure your back pain, or how to stop the pain. One book even talks about how having the right mental attitude will make the pain go away! Don't titles like that make you want to scream? They make me want to. Already we're fighting our own bodies for failing us, our doctors who don't often want to put the effort into making a real diagnosis because Chronic Back Pain is enough of a title and it's an excuse for a doctor not to have to search harder since nearly all doctors know that most back pain isn't diagnosised, and even sometimes those close to us who think that because we want to get out and be around other people or because we try to not to show our pain all the time, that we must be feeling well enough to go back to our normal lives. And the books don't help. They make it sound like if we just fight harder, everything can and will go back to normal.
Well, it won't. Fighting harder just wears you out quicker and makes you hurt more.
posted by Teeg | 12:46 PM
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