Talking Back: How to Overcome Chronic Back Pain and Rebuild Your Life

161 Pages·2021·2.257 MB·English

by  Howard, Rowland G. MD

Talking Back
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Talking Back
How to Overcome Chronic Back
Pain and Rebuild Your Life
Rowland G. Hazard, MD
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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The ideas and strategies in this book are not meant to substitute for the care and
guidance of a skilled and trusted personal physician. The author recommends that
readers begin their recovery programs by reviewing their health and treatment plans
for safety and guidance with their doctor. The author and publisher disclaim any
liability for health outcomes generated by following the suggestions in this book.
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2021 by Rowland G. Hazard
All figures were created by the author.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hazard, Rowland, 1949– author.
Title: Talking back : how to overcome chronic back pain and rebuild your
life / Rowland G. Hazard, MD.
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2021] | Includes index. |
Summary: “Back pain afflicts more than 3 in 4 adults and costs Americans
over $100 billion every year. While most people recover quickly, the
disabilities suffered by people who don’t generate the vast majority of
the costs and heartache. Talking Back offers people disabled by chronic
back pain personal strategies for recovering active lives and
wellness” — Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020047797 (print) | LCCN 2020047798 (ebook) | ISBN
9781538146651 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538146668 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Backache—Popular works. | Chronic diseases—Popular works.
| Communication in medicine.
Classification: LCC RD771.B217 H39 2021 (print) | LCC RD771.B217 (ebook)
| DDC 617.5/64—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047797
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047798
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
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To
Bobbie Lanahan
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Contents
Preface ix
1 No One Knows Your Pain the Way That You Do 1
2 You Can’t Get What You Want ’til You Know What
You Want 21
3 The Medical Office Visit 43
4 Drugs 63
5 Relaxation 85
6 Acute and Chronic Pain 105
7 Wellness 119
Epilogue 129
Appendix A 133
Appendix B 135
Suggested Readings 137
Index 139
About the Author 149
vii
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Preface
L
ike three out of four Americans, you have probably suffered through
an attack of back pain. Surely, you know someone who has. Chances are
9 out of 10 that the episode resolved, with or without any treatment. If
so, you don’t need to read this book.
Talking Back is for the millions of “1 out of 10s” who, despite
their best efforts to get rid of their pain, continue to suffer for months
and even for many years. Worse than that, their pain disables them.
They not only hurt every day; they also can’t do the most meaningful
things in life. Work, play, and even essential daily activities are limited
or impossible.
Americans spend more than $100 billion every year on back pain.
You have no doubt been touched in some way by the enormous and
growing economic burden of health care. So, you might expect that
tests and treatments for back pain account for the billions spent. You
would be wrong. The vast majority of the money covers the costs of
disability, not medical care.
Rather than proposing novel interventions to cure back pain,
Talking Back aims to help people disabled by chronic pain to get their
lives back on track. The lessons you are about to learn are drawn from
my conversations with small groups of more than 3,000 pain-disabled
participants in rehabilitation centers known as functional restoration
programs (FRPs). These programs were conducted at the University of
Vermont between 1986 and 2000 and subsequently at the Dartmouth-
Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire from 2002 through my
retirement in 2018.
ix
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