A Polish woman age 53 who has lived in the UK for 10 years told me of her experience.
She was having back pain and shooting pains down her legs which were worsening over time. She sought help from her GP with several appointments but found these encounters limiting as they were short, 5 minutes each, and you are only 'allowed' to talk about one problem at a time (an example of care that is not joined up - rather than several 5 minutes appointments, One 2 hour appointment to deal with it properly would be more efficient) She had several things which she thought were connected and as an artist drew, on paper, a picture or map of these to show the GP. She thought this would aid the GP but their response was one of horror, telling her to put the picture away, 'this is not going to help'. She was prescribed pain killers, of which, over time, she had to take more and more to get the same effect plus she was getting stomach pains as well as worsening pains in her back and legs which were becoming debilitating.
Her relatives in Poland were worried so she went to a Polish hospital where she was admitted and they treated her. As a result of this treatment, including IV painkillers etc. she had extravasation injuries (this is when the drugs leak from the vein into the tissues and cause damage) and eventually near sepsis for which she had to have IV antibiotics (the more drugs administered the greater the side effects leading to more problems and drugs). They diagnosed her with a stomach ulcer - a result/side effect of all the painkillers - and Sciatica, caused by trapped nerves in one or two of the vertebrae in her spine, and told her she needed an operation. She did not want an operation and, besides, it would cost £5000 in Poland, which she didn't have, and to get this on the NHS would take a long time on a waiting list.
She left the Polish hospital with as many morphine patches as she could get (at least these would not aggravate the stomach ulcer and allow it to heal a little) and returned home to her husband in England. The pain got steadily more severe. She said she was crying with the pain and could only walk a few agonising steps at a time. She had hit rock bottom.
She began to think about the past and confronted some events from her past which she had buried. (There had been a personal trauma in the past which she did not elaborate on) With deep thinking, working through these events in her mind and what she described at 'letting go' she found that slowly her pain and range of movement began to improve until one day her husband said to her, 'You're smiling!' She went from hardly being able to walk to being able to even dance a little, something she never thought she would do again. She had also improved her diet, cut down on alcohol and lost a lot of weight which definitely contributed to her healing.
Then, she eventually was contacted with an appointment from the NHS, as a result of her previous GP appointments and referral. She thought that she might as well go, even though she was so much better, and was seen by a Non surgical Spinal consultant (A highly qualified medical person). He was still interested to know her story and told her to take all the time she needed. She thought - wow! are you really from the NHS? He listened to her story and confirmed that this was an example of what you need to do to release your nervous system, which is being affected through the build up of stress and other factors, and allow your immune system to heal you. You have to, somehow, take your body out of this state of Fight, flight or freeze. In this state the body is trapped. In the fight state you may take drugs to try to fight the illness, often resulting in other problems. In her case, confronting her past with a positive attitude, working through her problems and putting aside this state had allowed her immune system to heal her. We know that the mind and body are connected and that the mind can be extremely powerful. We've all heard of the placebo effect. Her MRI scan showed that her spine was perfectly typical of a person her age. It had some imperfections, but these are no more ominous than having grey hair for example. He surmised, although it cannot be proven, that maybe the brain sends pain to your body to allow you to confront events from your past that are buried in your mind, and allow you to heal your body and mind. I suspect that the pain is random and by positive thinking and changes in your attitude and taking healthy steps such as losing weight, healthy eating and moving a little more' bit by bit you can heal yourself.
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