jcroft

A Spondylolisthesis Success Story

I have been reading this board and working for the past 12 months, but have never posted. This is to give hope to all you out there with this diagnosis. I am 42 years old, high school and college athlete, have always been into lifting and running and stay very fit. After an episode of back pain I had x rays which diagnosed me with grade 1 spondylolisthesis with a pars defect (broken bone) at L3 and DDD, and bulging disc from the MRI. I was crushed. The ortho said never to lift more than 40lbs and my athletic life is basically over, just try to control the pain, and if that doesn’t work we can do a fusion. I began using Dr. google since I had no clue what spondy was and that was a mistake. Saw all the horror stories. My mind began picturing my life with a cane, wheelchair, etc. because of what I had read. The day of my diagnosis my pain increased 2 fold and continued. Being an athlete all my life, I worked hard with a PT for 2 months, nothing. I tried everything under the sun with no avail. I came across “Healing Back Pain” on the web and ordered the book. After a read I proceeded to lay down the book and called it garbage (after all I have a scientific background, and this was not rational, although I had every personality trait!). Still in pain a month later I read it again, decided this very well could be my ticket avoiding a fusion, I wholly bought in and started working the plan. After a month there was no change. Frustrated I pushed on and forced myself back to the gym and running. Long story short, it took a good 4 months to become pain free. I am back to lifting (heavy weights, deadlifting, squats, etc.) 5 days a week and running. My strength is not back to where I was, but I have no doubts I will get back there. I am 5 months pain free. I simply share this information to give you all hope and encouragement. Although Dr. Google really messed up my head at first with all the negativity about spondy, one remarkable thing I learned from all the recent research is that 6-8% of the population is walking around with this condition without pain (that is 15 million in the US alone!). I praise God for my health and thank Him for somehow, someway leading me to the good doctors book.