Recovery story: Troy’s empowering journey to healing from chronic back pain

Meet Troy

I am 47 years old and I have had recurring back pain for the last 19 years.

The onset of back pain

In 1995 I suffered my first back injury (or episode of back pain), which I thought at the time was a gym injury. I was doing a lot of back and leg exercises to try and rehabilitate a knee injury from football. Just a few months earlier my girlfriend at the time had died from esophageal cancer, obviously a very traumatic time.

The scans from this injury showed that I had a herniated disc and I suffered from severe sciatic pain for 2 and a half years. I saw 13 different specialist (doctors, physios, osteos, chiros and even a witch doctor) and had the pain blocking cortisol injections, which did nothing at all.

I was told by a leading sports doctor that I would need surgery but I avoided this procedure despite the temptation and promises. I had heard of too many horror stories. However, due to the chronic pain I had to resign from my job as a police officer at the time.

After two and a half years the pain eventually resolved with a lot of core strengthening work and visualization. I didn’t realise the connection at the time but it was also when I began dating my now wife, a time of happiness again.

Patterns of chronic pain flare-ups

I have since suffered regular bouts of back pain ranging from several weeks to several months in duration without doing anything obvious to trigger it. However, on reflection it has always occurred at times of high stress or grief, including the passing of my sister and my dad and even on an extended campervan holiday where I was sleep deprived for weeks on end as two of my three children refuse to stay in bed.

The scans typically showed a herniated disc and disc degeneration. I also suffer from anxiety and over thinking, which I am sure doesn’t help.

My latest back injury occurred in February of this year not long after the passing of my father from motor neuron disease and relocating the entire family from Darwin back to country Victoria.

I was suffering severe pain, often having to crawl from the bed to the bathroom and lying in the back of the car to go anywhere. I couldn’t sit down at all and could only stand for short periods of time. The scans showed that I again had a herniated disc, this time at the L5 S1 location and disc degeneration.

The challenge of finding effective management tools

Again I saw experienced doctors and a physio specializing in spinal injuries. I took all sorts of strong medications with horrible side effects and did all the exercises without any relief at all.

After 3 months the doctor suggested I have the surgery as the compressed sciatic nerve could be permanently damaged if it wasn’t relieved.

However at this time I came across a yoga teacher on Youtube who mentioned John Sarno. I read his book and became very interested in the concept of TMS and the effects of grief and stress on the body. This lead me to other Youtube Influencer types who had very similar stories and how they healed themselves through the mind body approach.

Understanding the body’s ability to heal itself

I’ve always thought that the body is incredible and that it can heal itself from most things but until now I didn’t have the right tools to facilitate this.

I adopted some of the principles of these influencers; movement (swimming), breathing, journalling and meditation and my symptoms in a month improved but only slightly.

Finding the Relio program

I then came across the Relio program. This program also encompasses the things I was already doing and believed in, ie the breathing and movement plus education on back pain etc. I started walking (for me in nature was most relaxing) and even slowly jogging for short distances each day and followed the program closely, also doing several extra short breathing sessions a day.

Seeing results and improvements in pain management

Over the course of the 6 weeks my pain started to change quite dramatically. I noticed that it would flare up at times of stress but ease off at other times and that I could significantly control it with regular breathing and short meditation or hypnotherapy practices.

I also noticed that the pain would move to other parts of my body and I had read that this can be a good sign of healing. The information in the program really resonated with me and the more I truly believed in it the more it seemed to work.

After a few weeks I was able to start driving my car without pain for short trips and cook meals for the family.

Getting back to meaningful activities

6 weeks later I was totally out of pain and I am now back at work in my carpentry and maintenance business. I even did a return 6 hour drive from Mildura to Melbourne without any pain at all. This was amazing after not being able to drive at all just 8 weeks ago.

Now when I am stressed and can feel the little tingles, instead of fearing the pain, which I know makes it worse, I know its time to put down the tools and do some short relaxation exercises.

I will continue to listen to my body and adopt these practices regularly for the rest of my life.

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