Mark T Flavell

Email:-mark_flavell@msn.com

Hi & thanks again for giving me my life back. Please find attached an account of my life with a bad back. By Mark T Flavell, Rudby Close Yarm, Cleveland.

When you are 25 you are indestructible.......................wrong. When I was 25 and at 6am one morning, twenty minutes after getting up, I manually rolled a heavy engine block over. I had no idea what had happened but I'd liken it to being stabbed in the back. I collapsed on to the floor where I stayed for 4 hours until a colleague came in to work & finding me on the floor helped me to straighten up & eventually sit up. I learnt to cope with the pain but for the next 20 years never got over it & several times experienced something very similar.

Slowly the whole 'back-pain' saga came to dominate my life. I started to see Anna Laursen at the Stockton Chiropractic Clinic who would perform miracles in relieving the pain after an 'attack'.

My family & hobby are my life, I have a great wife, 2 super kids & I've raced Dragsters since I was 18. I raced twice in 2003 & after the second realised I was never going to race again I had deteriorated to such an extent I could no longer get in & out of the car unaided. I went to see Anna who said that she thought I had reached a stage that she could no longer help me. By this point I was seeing her once or twice every week. Anna recommended I see my own doctor to refer me to a specialist & to have a scan. I'd already adjusted my life style so that I lifted nothing. I'd raised my office desk, bought all the recommended chairs, sofas & waterbeds. I'd arranged every aspect of life around 'easing the pain'. I can remember having conversations with my wife & daughter, all the while only thinking 'what position can I move, twist, bend or stoop to, to ease the pain. After you've said 'pardon' so many times they lose interest in telling you about their day etc. Sex, are you kidding? My customers didn't ring as they knew asking me to view a job could entail climbing into or onto equipment possibly & it would be to much for me.

I received an appointment to see Mr Krishna for 9.00am it took me 45 minutes to get from the car to his office. He told me that I had several options but only one that was permanent & that was to repair the damaged lower spine by bridging L3/4 & L4/5 with Titanium braces a PLIF I believe its called. Scary as that sounds I didn't think twice as the only why forward I could envisage was in a wheelchair. His words where that I had an 80% chance of being 80% better. Let me tell you I'm 98% better & living life now better than I have for 20 years.

At 47 I'd never had a general anaesthetic I thought it would be real scary but in all honestly every body involved never gave me any concern & before you knew it, I was counting back from 10..9..8..& then I woke up after four & a half hours of surgery. I got a shock when within a few hours they sat me on the edge of the bed, stood me up & walked me forward then let go!!!. I've never looked back. Ann thinks it's great to have her husband around again and the kids have a Dad who takes them on holiday. I've resumed my racing career & all manner of activities that frankly I thought I'd never do again. I'm not 100%. If I sit to long I get a tightness feeling in my lower back & if I try to ignore this it can become painful, but its not a nagging all consuming pain like I had before. It’s easily sorted by getting up & having a stretch. When its cold I have a dull background pain but very slight & easy to cope with. I still won't lift anything & exercise a cautious approach to life in general. The only one thing I struggle with is believe it or not, is the twisting & pulling needed to steer a shopping trolley around the supermarket. A task I have delegated to my daughter!