I discuss the cultural belief system about spine surgery and it’s impact on the treatment for chronic pain. It took me years to understand that performing fusions for LBP is based on unsubstantiated belief rather than hard data. I thought that surgery could always alleviate pain and felt I had an obligation to perform an operation if I could find the smallest reason. I eventually realized the only specific identifiable structural problems with matching symptoms are amenable to surgery.

The post Video: I Can Only Fix What I Can See first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Video: I Can Only Fix What I Can See appeared first on Back in Control.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old. They stop pursing dreams when they are crushed by relentless anxiety…

Gabriel Garcia Marquez modified by David Hanscom

Life just beats us up—pain or no pain. Eventually many if not most of us gravitate towards a survival mode. Instead of living life with creativity and vigor, we’re just trying to get to Friday and recover over the weekend.

Chronic pain greatly magnifies this process. Instead of aiming for Friday, you are trying to just get through the day. As you become more anxious and frustrated, it becomes more difficult to engage in positive experiences with your family and friends. Good food, wine, and hobbies gradually disappear. In almost all cases, people suffering from chronic pain become increasingly isolated.

The major problem with this sequence is that an inordinate percent of your nervous system is focused on your pain, so you will feel it more. The reason that goal setting becomes such an important part of the DOC project is that it causes your thoughts to be somewhere else besides your pain. Goal setting is not positive thinking. Positive thinking is just another way of suppressing negative thinking and particularly in the context of chronic pain it is a disaster.

I was reminded about a poem I wrote in 2003 while attending a surgical training session sponsored by one of our instrumentation companies.  It was a remarkable weekend that altered my surgical approach to spinal deformity. Most of the three-day course was spent working on cadavers. I wrote this poem:

Whoever you were
You were generous
Giving yourself
To be my teacher
On your last day of
School

Remember the time of your life where your dreams were running free. Spend some time with it and re-connect with that energy. Reminisce with your partner. You have only one shot at this life. Give it your best shot!!

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Aching Back? Why Surgery Is Not Indicated for Lower Back Pain, Case In Point, July 201.  (Reproduced with permission from Case In Point.)

BF

The post Video 8/19: Fusions For LBP Don’t Work first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Video 8/19: Fusions For LBP Don’t Work appeared first on Back in Control.

BF

The post Video 7/19: The Catastrophe Index first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Video 7/19: The Catastrophe Index appeared first on Back in Control.

BF

The post Video 4/19: Listen When Your Surgeon Says “No” first appeared on Back in Control.

The post Video 4/19: Listen When Your Surgeon Says “No” appeared first on Back in Control.