No, when sort of after probably about three years, I decided that I had to find something good out of having a bad back and that for me was becoming involved in Back Care. Because, what I found was, in the first three years, was just that there isn't information out there for you.
It's almost as like the medical profession don't want to tell you that it's going to be chronic and long-term. I don't know whether it's because they feel a failure 'cos they can't do anything, or they feel that you're putting it on. I don't know what it is, but nobody mentions chronic pain at all.
And, looking back, I wish somebody had been totally honest with me from the, maybe not from the beginning, but sort of maybe from after six months the chances of recovery are slim for most people and I would prefer that somebody had been honest with me at that point and said “Okay this is how, this is what we have to do, where we go”.
But they don't do that and so, for me, it's been really important to help try and support other people, for two reasons really. One is that I wouldn't want anybody to go through what I've gone through. You know, the whole thing really, you know loss of my job, loss of friends, debt, everything. I wouldn't want people to go through that as well as having a chronic health problem.
But also, if people are going through it, I'd like to think that I can give them some support and advice on where to seek help. And I think sometimes that's what you want, especially in the early days, you want somebody just to listen, who will listen to you and who will know exactly what you're talking about. And that is one of the biggest, it's just such one of the biggest helps that you can have when you have chronic pain. |
