Case History of a painful back
Age 55 years. Female
The case is that of a woman who has suffered from excruciating back pain and leg pain that stopped her from sleeping for 17 years. She had L4 removed and the ones on either side fused. Before this operation, as a woman of 32, she could not walk. She is now 55 years of age and has been in pain for almost 3 decades. She says that “to just stand still was agony” She could not swim or exercise or sleep. When her back was really bad, in order to sleep, she would line the bed with pillows and then get up in the night and take them all off and then a couple of hours later put them back again. A terrible search for comfort.
She was very depressed and could not see the point of living like this. Her X-rays showed nothing out of place at all. She had taken painkillers for years as her only means of pain relief. Her sleep was poor and she needed drugs to induce it. She suffered from terrible hot flushes and night sweats that were exhausting and embarrassing and left her with a bright red face and dry skin. The night sweats would leave her shaking and freezing as her body tried to regulate to the extremes of heat and cold. She took HRT for 4 years but came off them when the media reported a tendency to cancer for those women who had taken HRT for a few years.
Her right kidney did not function properly resulting in many unproductive trips to the loo. The pains in her legs were the worst symptom as they would shoot down the outside of her legs and this meant that she must shift position frequently during the night. She used to hang from the door jamb to try and get some relief from these pains. She had absolutely no faith that anything would help her other than possibly another operation as after the last one she was pain free for a few years.
After the first treatment she did not take painkillers before she went to bed but slept badly as her back ached. That night her whole body ached but this only lasted for one night and then the ache just faded away and there was no more pain in her back and legs! The second night she went to bed and slept all night and when she woke up in the morning she felt “absolutely amazed”. After the first treatment she told me that she had thought “this isn’t going to work! I have had a bad back for years and Su hardly touched me”.
Three days later she had pain in her legs again but only when she knelt on the floor. This is something that she has not been able to do for years! She has not had a hot flush for two days and people have commented on how much better she looks. She began to drink a lot more water and have successful trips to the loo. She felt that she was flushing out her system. She has thrown out all her pills.
On the third treatment she reported that she has “slept really well without drugs and that there is no pain down the legs as before”. She is astounded and says that “everyone should have Bowen”. She still has no hot flushes or night sweats and she “feels wonderful with lots of energy and positive emotions”.
Since she has had such a long history of back pain and associated debilitating symptoms and because the Bowen treatments help her to relax so well she told me that she is reluctant to stop the treatments and so she booked another appointment a month later. Unfortunately she missed this due to having the flu so when I finally saw her she had slipped back a bit. She had sneezed and immediately felt a pain in her back but this was different to the past and as she described it to me I thought it sounded more like sciatica. After this treatment to she felt “as right as rain again” and went home feeling very happy. Again she has had no hot flushes, night sweats or sleepless nights. She takes no medicine and has begun to walk the dog, swim and is very active again.
She is now an active, healthy, pain free convert to Bowen and has recommended many of her friends to me.