Interview CP43

Age at interview: 64

Brief Outline: Back pain since accident at home in 1993. Treatments: Facet joint injections. Pain management: In-patient NHS pain management programme. Current medication: co-dydramol Past medication: co-proxamol.

Background: Medically retired lorry driver; single.

Was filmed walking at the start and the end of the pain management programme and was amazed...

When I went to pain management, one of the first things they do is video you walking up and down the corridor - front and back views. After the third week, they do another video of you walking up and down the same corridor and they show you the results of the videos, before and after, and the difference is unbelievable, wouldn't believe it, the difference in your walk, there's so much difference.  

As I say about the girl with the crutches was the most, was... since she was on crutches the first day and after three weeks she was walking up and down the passageway without them. All right, she could only walk up once and back and then she had to put on the crutches, but she actually walked up and down that passageway with no crutches and it was great, it was a great thing... Should have more of them.

What else did they do? Did they ask you any other questions about your pain?

Mostly about tablets, what sort of medication we was on. They're quite hard on that, they try to get you to cut down on your tablets and they succeeded in I'd say 99% of the cases. Everyone that I knew cut down on their tablets and I think this is the sort of thing that it should, you'd come when you first had the accident, before anything else, if someone has an accident at work or at home and they've injured their self and get in this sort of position, this should be one of the first things they go to, a Pain Management Clinic. Not leave it ten years before you go. They should have these up and running, straight in. It'd make life a lot easier.  
 

Had facet joint injections but found them very painful and did not get any relief from them.

Carried on under them for quite a while and they set up a new clinic and I went in to have some injections in my back. They're supposed to, what they try to do is inject fluid between all your joints to sort of open them. I'm afraid that didn't work.  

I didn't get off this settee for three days afterwards and the injections, I had 36 needle holes in me. And they did ask me if I wanted to go back and have it done again, there was no way I would have that done again and I wouldn't advise anyone to go with that. That is absolute diabolical.  

I mean they said I would be awake all the way through it and after about a couple of minutes they put me out. I was in so much pain with it. But as I say, it didn't work and that was when they referred me or meant to say that was when it must have been six months to nine months after they referred me to the pain clinic (Pain Management Programme).

Felt that learning to live with an eye problem has helped him accept his back pain.

Its, I mean the way you're talking it seems like you've realised that pain's going to be part of your life?

Oh yeah.

How did you come to realise that?

When they first told me that there is no cure, they couldn't cure it. Mostly, I think I learnt it with me eyes first off, because I went, it took eight years for the hospital to acknowledge that I had a problem with me eyes, they thought they cured it when they operated, but they hadn't.

But in actual fact that was a bit of a godsend to me, 'cos that helped me with me back, once I learnt to control me eyes. It took me over a year, eighteen months to control them, but once I'd controlled myself with me eyes, then I done the self same thing with me back virtually and it paid off.