2009 - The back strikes
Running around on the beach with my sons, going mountain climbing, camping. I have fun doing all of that and I need it to unwind from my job. I feel young, even though I’m middle-aged. That has its good points. In any case, I’ve learned to be a little more careful than I was before.
I’m sure that the stress shot into my back when it happened. I was 34, the children were still very young. I would work fourteen hours a day, sit at my computer on the weekends and talk on the phone late at night. At the time, I was working as an executive for a cycling magazine and I was responsible for organizing all of the magazine’s events. It was a lot of fun for me, but I also felt how much the stress was wearing on me. I pulled the ripcord too late.
Maren, the children and I were on vacation in Canada for fi ve weeks, which was somewhere I always wanted to go. It was a complete change of pace: from maximum stress to complete relaxation. We drove through the country in a mobile home, went mountain climbing, hiked through maple forests and grilled trout on the campfi re. At the end, we were in Vancouver. I was playing tag on the beach with my older son Jan and suddenly this pain shot into my hip. And the pain didn’t go away. Not when I went swimming in the ocean, not when I walked around, and not even when I was driving the car.
Back in Germany, I went to the doctor. The diagnosis came quickly: herniated disc, severe. Two discs in the lumbar spine had slipped out. The pain in my hip came from the pinched nerve. “The best course is to operate right away,” said the doctor. “No, no, let’s leave it for now,” I said. I wanted to try other things fi rst. My back was in good shape, I thought, I could build on that. I got regular injections and I went to physical therapy three times a week. It took some patience, but one day the pain was gone.
I’m sure of one thing: if my condition worsens again, I’ll go under the knife. But so far, everything is going very well. There is no pain at all in my back when I go swimming or cycling. Recently I had a bad fall when skiing and, as I was falling, I thought of my back. But even then: nothing. Only when something isn’t right in my head, when I’m upset or overworked, I feel it in my back. Then I remember that I have to take care. Of myself and my back.
Pictures of the story
Preserving the backbone - maintaining mobility
Important and sensitive: the back
The human spine is a wonder of nature. Thanks to its unique double “S” shape, it can cushion all shocks, allowing us to walk upright, move our hands freely and use them as tools. These complex abilities, in turn, stimulate the brain to undergo its enormous development. So you could say that the spine makes us what we are. But at the same time, it causes problems. In Germany, for example, between 32 and 49 percent of all people suff er from back pain, which affects women more frequently than men. 80 percent of all US residents experience back pain at some point in their lives. One frequent cause of back pain occurs when discs and vertebral joints get worn out. Between each of the 24 vertebrae of the backbone there is a disc, consisting of a soft core surrounded by a harder ring of fi bers. The disc therefore acts as a flexible yet robust shock absorber. With increasing age, the discs become brittle, and sometimes the ring tears and a gelatinous mass escapes from the core of the disc and presses upon the nerves in the area of the spine. Such a herniated disc can result in pain and even paralysis. The less we exercise, the less the discs will be supplied with nutrients from the surrounding tissue and the faster they will age. Back problems can also be caused by stress. When our back muscles cramp or tense up, it can be very painful: false postures which are triggered by anxiety or irritation cause one-sided stress to the spinal column, which in turn damages the discs. In other words, back pain is the result of periods of our life when we are under a great deal of stress and don’t get enough exercise.
The right treatment
What’s needed to alleviate occasional back pain is patience, a hot water bottle and, above all, exercise and physical therapy. In the long run, exercises that target the back and trunk muscles are the best way to prevent back pain. Only rarely is surgery required. In some cases, it is enough for the surgeon to remove the escaped gelatinous mass. But sometimes it may be advisable to remove the defective disc and replace it with an artificial disc. In rare cases, the surgeon will have to fuse theaffected segment of the spine, usually with a good result if the indication is suitable.
Useful tools
If surgery is required, B. Braun off ers lumbar disc prostheses and implants to strengthen the spine and the right tools for the procedure. A critical role in this process is the removal and handling of diseased tissue using motorized, miniaturized cutting, sawing and rasping tools. The ELAN 4 microsurgical motorized system was developed in close coordination with surgeons for this purpose. When performing disc surgery in close proximity to nerves and the spinal cord, the system allows surgeons to remove or alter structures using little mills and saws. The result is an extremely precise system, which features ergonomically safe handling. Artificial implants and spinal fusion sometimes aff ect adjacent segments of the spine. That is not the case with the regeneration of damaged discs, which is why regenerative methods will become increasingly important in the coming years. B. Braun TETEC, based in Reutlingen, Germany, is developing just such a visionary treatment option, in which disc cells taken from the patient are cultured under sterile conditions and their regenerative properties are activated, after which they are implanted back into the disc. In this way, the disc is built up, restoring its elasticity and its function as a shock absorber between the vertebrae.