My MRIs/EMG/CT | Post Op Contrast MRI | 1 Year Post Op 3T contrast MRI | My Disability Scores

ChiroGeek's Story:

Unfortunately, I'm one of the unlucky ones who have been plagued with bouts of lower back pain for more than 35 years. The first notable incident that I recall occurred when I was a junior in high school--there was no particular reason for this short-lived pain to occur. My father, who was a physician, took me to an orthopedist who diagnosed me with "sway back" or, in doctor speak, a hyperlordotic lumbar sagittal curve.

Although I played American football from age 6 to 19, I believe that a jump off of a 15-foot slide that occurred at the age of 9 damaged the vertebral end-plates of my lowest lumbar vertebrae. This axial over-load injury set in train the phenomenon of pathological disc degeneration that has now come full circle--i.e., the disc herniated. I also recall another axial over-load injury that occurred when I was about 13 years old: I was swinging from the boat house over the lake on a long rope while seated on a thin wooden board. Suddenly the rope broke, and I plummeted about 15 feet into the swallow water below. I landed hard in a seated position and remembering have a few days of pain. I'm sure all of the years of very heavy weight lifting (regularly worked with weights over 500 pounds) and Olympic-level hammer throwing didn't help things.

Despite my "bad back", I was still able to compete well in Collegiate Track and Field--an later at an Olympic level. I fell in love with the Hammer Throw (which is probably the worse sport on the planet for the discs in your lower back) and excelled. I was named "All-American" six times (4 outdoor, 2 indoor) while attending my undergraduate college, Ferris State University, in Big Rapids Michigan. After college, I continued pushing for my dream--to become an Olympian. Although I made two Olympic Festival Teams and was an alternate on the 1988 Olympic Team, an injury to--you guessed it--my lower back ended my Olympic quest in 1989.  Recently, all that blood, sweat and tears semi-payed off, for I was inducted into the Ferris State University Athletic Hall of Fame--Class of 2006. [Gillard--Bio]

My fascination with the human body, the untimely death of my mother from cancer and curiosity with regard to the cause of my own lower back problems drove me into Chiropractic College--I would have used my incredible drive to pursue my dream of becoming a medical doctor if it weren't for that ball! In 1983, I gained acceptance into Life Chiropractic College and moved away from the snow to Marietta, Georgia. This move greatly helped my Hammer Throwing because I could now train outdoors all year-round--I never had to shovel snow off the hammer circle again.

In 1986 I graduated with honors (Cum Laude) from Life Chiropractic College with a doctorate in Chiropractic and quickly moved to San Jose, California where one of the Olympic Hammer coaches lived. I owe a lot to coach Burke, who not only fine tuned my throwing technique, but also landed me a job as an Athletic Trainer with a top-notch physical therapy group where I learned more about rehabilitation in 9 months than I did in my entire four years of Chiropractic College!

My hammer throwing thrived in sunny California under the tutorage of three-time Olympian Ed Burke--I moved from an 18th U.S. ranking in 1987, into the top 10 within one year. And the next year, with my lower back "behaving," I unexpectedly almost made the 1988 Olympic team--I was named as an alternate. I was on a roll and was the only U.S. hammer thrower that had improved his mark consistently every single year. I was expected to easily make the 1992 Olympic Team; however, my lower back had other plans for me.

THE LAST STRAW:

The 1989 season started great! I was setting training records like crazy. That is, I hit over 72 feet with the 35 Pound Weight (still a top-10 U.S. throw) and was having 240 foot throws in January, four months before the season began--my coach predicted that I would crack the 250 foot barrier that year, which would have ranked me in the world.

Then it happened:

It was late January and I was in the later phases of a very heavy weight lifting cycle. While doing triplets (sets of three repetitions with a barbell), I slipped while power cleaning 352 pounds to my chest--there was too much baby powder on the platform (which I should have cleaned off). I hyperextended my lower back during that incident, which ultimately coasted 8 weeks of training--my season was shot, although I still achieved a U.S. Ranking of fourth that year and set a personal best in the hammer of over 237 feet--a long way from my Ferris State University record of 200 feet, which still stands to this day.

Unfortunately, my lower back was never the same. It could handle the throwing, but not the very heavy weight lifting that was mandatory for continued improvement. That is, every time I loaded over 550 pounds on my back (which is not that much for an Olympic Level throwing athlete), I would suffer days to weeks of pain. My throwing career was over.

THE FOOL:

After quitting my low paying chiropractic associate job, I turned my energy towards building my own chiropractic practice. Is wasn't long before I was one of the busiest chiropractors in the Bay area. At our peak, we were seeing over 125 patients per day--life was good!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the thrill of competition out of my head! In the early 1990s, to took a run at becoming a professional golfer. Although it wasn't throwing hammers, I was a natural at hitting golf balls. In fact, I was down to a 2 tournament-handicap with three years. Again, however, my lower back rebelled, which forced my retirement from the sport.

Next I decided to learn to play the guitar and sing, which I did with easy. After about three years, I formed a Blues Band (Dr. Doug and the Blues Creepers) and cut two CDs--I had always been musically gifted, which I gave up for high school football and track. We were just taking off around the Bay area (playing three gigs per weeks) when another health problem reared its ugly head and scared me into quitting--it was a benign heart arrhythmia that freaked me out.

Next, I decided to test the Stanford cardiologist's opinion that my heart was fine: I took up bike racing--a' la Lance Armstrong Style. Again, after losing 65 pounds within about three years, I was kicking butt in the Masters division. It turned out that my VO2 was over 60, which is very good for someone now over forty. I thought I had finally found a sport that my back could tolerate (no heavy weight lifting involved)--but I was wrong.

(photo right) Here I'm finishing 5th out of 100 riders in big, 70 mile, race in southern California . Note the extreme lumbar flexion that must be maintained! This is a terrible biomechanical position for a disc patient to endure!!!! I of asking for trouble!!

The Final Incident of Injury:

With a severe lower back injury, which occurred in Hawaii two years before (boy did that ruin our vacation), seeming well healed, the 2002 season was off to a great start. Although my ticker still bugged me a little, my body seemed to hold up well to a grueling three months of winter's training where I logged about 400 miles per week (40 hours per weeks of pure training). Needless to say, I had now become a real threat in my Master's Category division: I won two medals at the famous Sea Otter Classic (including a 2nd place finish out of over 100 riders), as well as many other high place finishes (I even had my first victory). I had also hired a former pro cyclist to enhance my training.

But, I was getting lazy! That is, I was slacking off on my methodical warm-up routine that involved 30 minutes of stretching and core exercises--I figured all the back pain was gone, so what was the point; I was an olympic class athlete who was indestructible... right? Wrong!

The season was almost over and--as usual--I was over-trained. The first injury occurred after a 25 mile individual time-trial, which demanded that crazy, aerodynamic position as demonstrated in the Rocky Hill Road Race photo above. Although I smashed my personal best time, placed second in the race, and nearly beat the Masters State Time Trial Champion, I hurt my lower back for the first time in three years. However, the pain was not in its usual location and seemed to be in my right sacroiliac joint (the opposite side as usual). So, I decided that the injury was not serious and trained through the pain--big mistake--for my favorite race of the year--the Henry Coe Time Trial--was up next and I had been training for that race all year.

On 10/20/02, while still in pain, I blasted up the 7 mile climb, which is at a 7% grade, in 33 minutes and placed second behind a 130 pound pure veteran climber. I remember feeling a burring pain that I thought was in my left SI joint all the way up the climb--little did I know that burring SI joint pain was really the spawning of a full thickness annular tear(s) within my L4 and L5. My season and unbeknownst to me at the time, my athletic career was about to change forever (well, it's 2008 and I still can't compete at that kind of level). After resting for a week or two (an eternity for an athlete), I tried to climb back on the bike and immediately flared-up severely. After another 2-3 weeks of rest, I tried again to ride and flared-up again. The cycle of rest and flare-up continued until January 1st, 2003. On this day, while still in pain, I attempted to calibrate a new $2500 bike trainer for use over the winter by cranking up the speed to 40 mile per hour, which generated over 500 pounds of force (as measured by my SRM) on the pedals--this incident resulted in severe lower back pain. The next day, I had my six-foot, 280 pound employee / doctor of Chiropractic work on my lower back on a flexion / distraction table. I told this incredibly strong doctor to go easy, but he went too hard and blow out my disc--I developed a burning pain down my left lower limb (sciatica) 30 minutes following that treatment (I should have fired him!)

ON THE MEND (10/06/08):

It has taken about 3-4 years to recover from that SCIATICA and lower back pain--the surgery I had set me back at least 18 months. It's now 10/06/08, and although I'm doing much better, I still get occasional attacks of mild sciatica and back pain about once every three months. I also have failed to return to any form of sporting activity. I can, however, walk flat as long as I want, sit as long as I want, and lift up to about 40-50 pounds (the days of lifting over 500 pounds are definitely gone). I'm going to buy an indoor bike and see how it goes, so stay tuned!

CAREER CHANGE ATTEMPT:

I'm also in the process of changing careers--or at least giving it my best shot. I just finished four semesters of school at San Jose State University in preparation for osteopathic or medical school. Although it was hard starting out with such rigorous classes after a 20 year hiatus from school--I jumped right into Genetics and General Chemistry (not the easier introductory classes, but the real ones that is required of all pre-med students)--I am now back in the swing of things. In fact, I aced my final semester of General Chemistry 2, and Cell Biology with a perfect 4.0 G.P.A. My over all G.P.A. for the two years of classes is a 3.68 and my pure science G.P.A. is 3.57--such a G.P.A. is good enough to get me into nearly any medical or osteopathic school.

The new problem is that damn MCAT! It makes the chiropractic boards look like a joke! Never have I studied so long and hard for, or even trained so hard for, something only to be crushed. That is, I just took the test on 09/13/08, and believe I didn't do well enough for even Osteopathic College (which as a little lower threshold than does Medical School). Two years of refreshing classes just wasn't enough to tackle that test.... but we shall see how I did. The Verbal reasoning portion was especially difficult--I'm a very slow reader--and will require, possible, a class in speed reading and logic. Ideally I need another year to prepare exclusively for that test, but at 48 years of age, I just don't think I have the time.

 

Page Top | Home

© Copyright 2002 – 2008 by Dr. Douglas M. Gillard DC - All rights reserved