Kate_April 2008 |
| Date | Back/Injury | Treatment | Outcome |
| 1975 | I was 19 years old, taking part in a kung fu demonstration and fell backwards, landing badly on my right buttock. I was very sore and bruised, and took painkillers for a week. | I went to the doctor who told me I was far too young to have done any permanent damage, and to carry on with the painkillers. | Painkillers and exercise didn’t make much difference, as I was on my feet all day in platform shoes working as a trainee supervisor with Miss Selfridge. After a few months, I developed a slight limp. |
| 1976 | Still having problems with my 5th lumbar and limping after a long day, so a friend recommended a local sports injury physiotherapist who helped her when she slipped a disc. | I had a course of treatment weekly over a few months to ‘click’ my back into place, and followed up with a ‘maintenance’ visit every 3 months. | This made an immediate difference, which lasted for a few days then reverted to being painful. The physiotherapist told me I had one leg longer than the other, and was flat footed on one side. He recommended I don’t wear high-heeled shoes again, which of course I ignored because this was the 1970’s! |
| 1981 | Same problem but by now I was working as an air stewardess and on my feet for long periods of time in fairly high-heeled shoes. | The physiotherapy wasn’t working and I was in so much pain after one very hectic summer season that I opted for some chiropractic treatment as a new clinic had opened up in Leicester. I had an x-ray first, which I was told was standard procedure for chiropractors in those days, then some treatment on my sacral area. I use the word treatment with caution as I felt it was more “acupressure with menaces” - but when you’re desperate, you’ll do anything to stop it hurting. | As before, it offered short-term relief from my sore back but long- term it didn’t work, and eventually caused me a lot of further pain. Financially, it wore me down. I finally quit my job in 1983, and had 12 months off to recover and repair. I wore flat shoes for nearly all of that period, but the niggling pain in my right buttock was still there, and it had started to affect my right hip and knee. |
| 1985 | I was accidentally swiped across the face in a swimming pool, which left me with 2 black eyes. Then two weeks later I had a wisdom tooth removed at the dentist. The first I knew that I had a right side neck injury was falling asleep at my desk a week later. | I was having acupuncture at the time and, as the therapist’s husband was an osteopath, I had combined treatment to my neck over a period of 6 months. | The combined treatment was quite effective and there has been no return of this injury. |
| 1990 | The 5th lumbar problem continued, and when my previous osteopath retired and I was recommended elsewhere. | As usual, the standard osteopathic method of “putting it back” continued with several visits a year. I was also surprised to be asked not to see other osteopaths, chiropractors etc, however other therapists were okay. | Overall, this didn’t heal the underlying problem but enabled me to function okay. I’d resigned myself to a state of “this is as good as it’s going to get” and decided to make the best of the spine I had |
| 1999 | Same old, same old 5th lumbar. | I tried the Bowen Technique. | Initially, this was great but once again, it only dealt with the mechanical rather that a mind, body, spirit approach. It also relied on regular sessions to maintain “state normal” which became financially impossible to continue with, so I returned to conventional osteopathy. I started yoga classes in 2000 and this started a marked improvement in my mobility, although I was restricted in some postures e.g. the lumbar roll. |
| 2006 | In summer 2006 I slipped in the garden on a wet grassy slope and really hurt myself. I was off work for days and in tears a lot of that time – mainly out of self-pity – and this time, the underlying pain didn’t go away. This was the turning point.My teacher recommended Andy Thomas and the Full Movement Method. | After giving Andy the above history of my previous back problems, his initial assessment of my spine was blindingly accurate. He anticipated how many treatments I would need to resolve the problem and set to work.I won’t describe Andy’s method of treatment here as each person’s experience is individual – it’s enough to say the results speak for themselves. | After the 3rd treatment, people who knew me were saying I looked really well and was much taller, mainly because I was wearing small heals all day with no ill effects for the first time since the Seventies. After the 5th treatment, I bought some high heels to wear at a wedding and although I had spare shoes in the car, I didn’t need them. |
| 2007 | After a nasty dose of flu, coupled with the end of a significant relationship, I couldn’t turn my head left because my neck was so stiff. | I’ve returned to the FMM clinic a few times this year and have a significant improvement in my neck. | Andy has also recommended complementary therapies such as homeopathy and acupuncture, as a way of dealing with and healing the underlying issues of this and I’m currently having chakra healing. |
| Overall: It’s not all about shoes or the opportunities not taken - it’s about hope and light at the end of a tunnel, together with the sure knowledge that your spine can and will heal with the right treatment. For me, finding it was the difficult bit of the journey. |
I had no idea what I was letting myself in for when I started. At times it was hard, always enjoyable and very enlightening. I learned more about myself than I could have imagined was possible.