Recovery story — How Doug used Relio to better manage his back pain from osteoarthritis

The onset of Doug’s back pain

I guess my back pain problem started way back in my life. 60 years ago I was at Boy Scout summer camp and a friend, and I decided to climb a partially fallen tree. I missed a branch and fell about 5 feet through the branches and landed on my back. I was sore for a few days but pushed through it.

Years later I was an Emergency Medical Technician with the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) squad while in college. In those days there were no pneumatic patient cots and all patients had to be manually lifted to the cot, the cot lifted into the ambulance and then unloaded at the hospital.

Some of our patients were a bit of a challenge to lift, especially the large football players out on the field. I managed to strain my low back muscles on a number of occasions, each resulting in several days of light duty.

After college I joined a volunteer fire-EMS department which again brought about more challenges to my low back. This job required extricating victims from car wrecks, carrying patients down flights of house stairs and working in all sorts of uncomfortable positions. This resulted in more low back strains, pulled muscles and time off work.

Getting a diagnosis for back pain

In my later years I began to have problems with my back once again as age has its way of reminding you about what you did in your youth. I was having severe pain in my lower back and running down one leg. My physician tried all the usual back treatments, but nothing really worked.

I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon. An MRI was done, and they found that my lumbar spine, the bottom section of the spine, had developed severe degenerative osteoarthritis and severe osteoporosis. I developed a curvature in the spine and later, compression fractures of the thoracic spine started appearing.

The low back pain continued to get worse, and I saw specialists who tried injections and nerve ablations, but nothing really helped.

Using hypnosis to manage other chronic conditions

As all of this was progressing, I was also dealing with irritable bowel syndrome and a physician mentioned trying hypnotherapy as a treatment. I discovered Mindset Health’s Nerva self-hypnosis/education program, did some research and then signed up.

Within six weeks of following the course readings and hypnotherapy sessions I found that the IBS had quieted down and I was able once again to eat the foods I enjoyed without the stress and anxiety of IBS. I continue to follow the program and still use the hypnosis sessions as needed to keep the IBS in check.

Finding the Relio program

When I heard that a low back program called Relio, was being developed by Mindset Health I got in contact with them and put my name on the list to be one of the first to use the new program.

I have now completed the six-week Relio program and am continuing to use some of the sessions regularly.

My back pain is not completely gone but I now better understand how pain works and what to react to or not react to.

I know that my back will never physically be in great shape, and I will still feel some pain, but I am now better able to resume many activities of daily living like walking, shopping in large big box stores, and playing with my 4 year old granddaughter.