Healed Without Surgery: A herniated disc success story

Andrew shares his transformative journey through chronic back pain, detailing the various treatments he pursued and the lessons learned along the way. His experience emphasizes the importance of understanding one's body, promoting a proactive approach to recovery that extends beyond surgical options. 
• Andrew's initial injury working in construction 
• The emotional and physical toll of chronic pain 
• Various treatments explored, from traditional to unconventional 
• Discovering Dr. Jeff’s High Performance Spine Program 
• Empowerment through understanding body mechanics and movement 
• Andrew’s transition to coaching and helping others recover 
• The take-home message of hope: not all pain requires surgery

Transcript

Recovery From Serious Back Injury

Speaker 1 0:00

But, as I said in my own experience, I was not letting my disc heal because I was panicking and I was driving around and I was bending all the wrong ways and I was exercising without knowing which exercises are actually good for me and which ones are bad for me. I didn't know how to sit, I didn't know how to drive properly, I didn't know what my lift position is.

Speaker 3 0:22

Welcome to Bed Back and Beyond, sharing positive stories of recovery from serious back or neck injury. Your host is CK, a fellow champion who draws on her own experience with herniated disc surgery. Join her as she talks with others who have overcome the physical and emotional trauma of a painful injury and discover for yourself how you can find hope and encouragement in recovery.

Speaker 4 0:50

Hi Andrew. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Bed, Back and Beyond. Before we dive into your back injury, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 1 1:01

Thanks for having me. So my name is Andrew. Once you translate it to English, because I'm from Serbia and my name is Andrea, but it does translate to Andrew. So I had. The first episode with Backpain was 12 years ago, when I was like 22 years old.

Speaker 4 1:21

Were you still in?

Speaker 1 1:22

Serbia. Yes, I was in serbia, but actually my grandfather worked in italy. So because I was a student at the time and didn't make any money and he's a construction worker, he asked me to go on like summer job to work with him. And he does uh, he builds, builds walls from rocks, very big rocks. So that's how I injured myself. Initially it was by pushing really big rocks uphill.

Speaker 4 1:54

How old were you at that time?

Speaker 1 1:56

I was 22 years old 12 years ago, so that was not smart to go from being a sedentary student who plays games to work a heavy construction job yeah, well, you're 22, so you probably figured out.

Speaker 4 2:12

There was no problem.

Speaker 1 2:14

Yes, yes, I thought I was young and I can just push rocks uphill, no issues. Uh, so like 10 days into that job I started feeling the pain, like my back went out. You probably know the feeling is when you have that like a zap in the lower back and then pain down the leg. But also I experienced a terrible groin pain and it hits me in the male region. Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:38

So I didn't know at the time where that was coming from. So of course I stopped working, I rested for like two or three days, but the pain was coming from. So of course I stopped working, I rested for like two or three days, but the pain was still here. And then I traveled back to Serbia. I got the MRI and I got this image, this exact image. I actually printed it out so that you can see it. So this is my wait it's the other way.

Speaker 1 2:59

Yeah, l5s1. So this is how it looked like even 12 years ago.

Speaker 4 3:06

That looks a lot like mine.

Speaker 1 3:09

Yeah, this MRI was actually taken four years ago.

Speaker 4 3:12

Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 3:14

I have an MRI 12 years ago, six years ago, four years ago and a year ago and I will tell you through the story because that's what you want to hear. So I I flew back, like I came back to serbia and I got the mri and the doctor told me I have like a disc herniation, alpha vs one, uh protrusion, and I should go and get some shot like a medicine and the rest for two weeks. And that actually worked. So I was painfree after two weeks of resting and like a cortisone-based stop.

Speaker 4 3:48

Can I ask you what's the health insurance situation like in Serbia at that time?

Speaker 1 3:53

It's free, like healthcare here is free, but it's not really good, but it's free. So you can just go to the doctor. You need to wait in line for like four hours and then you get treated on some level. So it's not bad. It's not like the USA it you need to wait in line for like four hours and then you get treated on some level. Okay, so it's not. It's not bad, it's not like the USA, it's not like that I will treat better because it's free.

Speaker 1 4:13

So two or three years after that episode, I was lifting something heavy again I think it was like a refrigerator and my back went out again. So I was back on the same procedure that I learned the first time. I took the shots and I rested for two weeks and my pain was gone. It's great. And then I continued to do heavy jobs and then I ended up in the IT industry and I was required to sit a lot in the office and then also drive a lot to meet with the clients all over Serbia. So I was always seated, and when I come back home, my wife was not driving at the time, so she and the kids would want to go somewhere, so I end up driving again. I drive 20 hours a day or 18 hours a day and then I I sleep a little late, then I drive again or sit.

Speaker 1 5:07

So four years ago or three and a half years ago, my back went out again. It was the same situation. I bent forward and I was picking up something from the back of my car. It was like one kilogram heavy, not very heavy, like a bag, yeah. So I just bent to pick that something and my back of my car it was like one kilogram heavy, not very heavy, like a baby, yeah. So I just bent to pick that something and my back went out. I I feel the zap in the lower back. Pain goes down the leg. So I tried the same, like I know what to do in these situations and it goes away in two weeks. So I tried laying in bed. I took two weeks off from work. My wife is a nurse, so she gives me the shot and it's like three shots in a week, something like that. Like every two days you get the shot. It's for pain.

Speaker 4 5:54

Was that a four-day shot?

Speaker 1 5:56

Yeah, it's just to lower the inflammation. It does nothing, I know. Now Two weeks went by and I was still in pain. So I called my boss at the time and I told him I'm still in pain, like I can't walk. My pain is eight out of 10. I can't get out, get out of the bed. What do I do? And he suggested some expensive treatment for me at the time, which was the. It's the best clinic in the region where I live here and they have those decompression tables, so they put you on a table and the machine kind of stretches your spine. Yeah.

Speaker 1 6:31

On certain pattern, kind of. So my boss at the time actually funded me to go to have 15 of those treatments like 15 days I believe it was and it was really expensive. It was like my monthly salary or something like that. So good boss.

Speaker 4 6:50

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 6:51

So I went on those treatments and I remember how it kind of goes. They put you for like 40 minutes on that table. It decompresses your spine. Then the physical therapist on there made me, uh, pull my knees to my chest oh, okay which is really bad for me, but this is that I didn't know at the time?

Speaker 1 7:11

yeah, you don't usually and then they made me rotate my knees, which is also really bad. Discs in the lower back don't like rotation, but I didn't know at the time and then I go get the laser for like 15 minutes and then I go get some electric socks through the leg okay, I don't know how to call that therapy and then the treatment is over and of course I had to drive for 20 minutes to go to get that treatment and then after the treatment I feel really terrible. I have to drive back home and in. In those 15 days I actually got much worse, much, much, much worse. And when I told them in the clinic this is not working, like I'm not getting better, they suggested to buy another 15 treatments.

Speaker 1 7:56

And I said I'm not doing this, Like I'm not doing this. So then I went to physical therapy, like the classic physical therapy. I thought, okay, robots are not helping, I can afford physical therapy, like the classic physical therapy. I thought, okay, robots are not helping, I can afford physical therapy, so let's try some physical therapy and is this still in serbia at the time? Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm still in serbia right now oh, you are okay yeah, uh.

Speaker 1 8:18

So I went to pt and I remember first there was a like a 22 year old female physical therapist does better, I'm just saying and she made me touch my toes, which is also really bad for me. I'll explain later why, because now I understand and I was touching my toes and she would tell me, uh, like I would explain to her, this is causing me a spike in the pain level right and I was actually walking to that physical therapy like something started to click here at the time.

Speaker 1 8:53

So I was not driving to the physical therapy. I walked for 15 minutes and I would feel better when I when I arrived there, and then she would make me to uh touch toes, which I didn't like, and I told her this is not good, and she told me to push through the pain. Now I understand that this is a really bad advice. You don't push through the pain when you have a disc-related issue in the lower back. So I did. Two weeks of PT Pain is still 10 out of 10 or 8 out of 10. And all the so in the last 12 years uh, well, not 12, 10 when I was in pain I'm not in pain anymore. I found the solution uh. So all the time while I was having uh disc related issues in the lower right, I would get that terrible pain in the groin region and that's like it's. It's really really not pleasant at all. It disables me completely, like I can only fall down, curl up and not move yeah, I think the groin pain is considered a red flag.

Speaker 4 9:54

Like usually, groin pain will say go see a surgeon yes, which is what I did.

Alternative Healing for Back Pain

Speaker 1 10:01

Uh. So, uh, during that physical therapy, that groin pain started appearing more and more frequently. It only lasts for 10 to 15 seconds, but it's terrible, and I later I understood that it is connected to the l5s1 specific disc herniation, but it's only like five percent of l5s1 disc herniations have that issue, and I actually managed to meet another person who had that issue. I'll tell you more about that. Uh, so, after the physical therapy, uh, it didn't work. I went to visit chiropractors. So chiropractors would bend me some tried dry needling okay, so they put a needle, yeah, to kind of relax the muscles.

Speaker 1 10:42

Nothing worked nothing, yeah. Then a friend told me about a spiritual healer, a lady that lives on a hill, and that lady fixed her wife's, his wife's lower back issues. Okay.

Speaker 4 10:53

This is a first. I went there as well. I went there as well.

Speaker 1 10:57

I went there as well. Of course. I drove for two hours to go there, sure Well when you're in pain, you want to try anything, right.

Speaker 1 11:03

A really old lady lives in a clay house. If you know what a clay house is? It's not made of bricks, it's made out of clay, so it's from like 1900s or something. It's a really old house and she actually relieved the pressure of my nerve. Like I went there. I drove for two hours, so I'm in more pain now. Then she would just I don't know pass me something. I don't know what she did, but it was like a chiropractor approach, something like that, and when I stood up, actually my pain was relieved, like the sciatica was almost gone, and I said thank you. And then I drove two hours back and I was back in the same pain before because I'm driving again, okay.

Speaker 1 11:44

So then I drove two hours back and I was back in the same pain before because I'm driving again, okay. So then I found out about the best chiropractor in the country. He lives again two hours from my house. I need to drive and he has a book and I read his book and I went on there and I brought my MRI multiple ones and I brought cash pay him because he's gonna fix me, right. I called right, yeah. He said yeah, come on. So I I went to that chiropractor and, uh, he took my mri, like the cd, actually put it in the computer, and then he saw, and then he was looking, he's looking and looking and he said I'm not touching you and I'm like like what do you mean? Like you can't fix me, you don't want to fix me.

Speaker 4 12:26

I just drove two hours.

Speaker 1 12:27

I just drove two hours. You told me to come, like why are you not fixing me? Fix me. And he said no. He explained something which I don't know how true that is, but he said because my disc is kind of going downwards here.

Speaker 4 12:44

Okay.

Speaker 1 12:49

I, my disc is kind of going downwards here. Okay, my disc requires surgery. So he said, because it kind of goes downwards, you need surgery. Like go have the surgery, buy some cream so you don't get the scar issues, I don't know some expensive cream from him. And then then, after I get the surgery, I can get back to him so he can kind of fix me or fix me more or I don't know. Tell me which stretches to do something like that. And I said, okay, let's go visit some surgeons. So I went to two surgeons that are free.

Speaker 1 13:19

As I explained, serbia has the free healthcare system, so you just need to wait a lot. And then you visit the surgeon and the surgeon told me that I need to have the surgery, and this really angers me. It's not okay. So this will never go back in, they told me. So whatever I do, whichever treatments I try, this will never go back inside and I will always be in pain. And then they have those kind of scary stories like your nerve will shorten. Oh, that's impossible. But I haven't heard that. Yeah, I understand, yeah, I did so. My nerve will shorten and then I will limp for the rest of my life. I don't think this is like you can't find this in any book or anywhere, but that's what the surgeon told me.

Speaker 1 14:04

And then I actually went to the private medical care, uh, which charges money for the surgery but yeah, uh, so, and he actually had an mri, so I actually took another mri on there, so he already got some money. And then he told me yeah, so, uh, you need to get the surgery. If you pay here, which was not cheap it was €3,000 for the surgery, which was like a lot of my monthly income, maybe four or five months, something like that so that was really expensive for me. But still, I sell my car, fix my back, go back to work. What am I going to do? I'm soon going to get fired. If I get fired, I lose my house. If I lose my house, I lose my wife and kids. There's no way out. And I'm already six months in pain continuously during this journey. Yeah, so my last episode was actually eight months of constant pain and it was eight eight out of ten to ten out of ten, and whenever the growing pain happens, it's just like I'm done, like that.

Speaker 4 15:10

Yeah, so you're pretty seriously you're pretty seriously considering selling your car.

Speaker 1 15:16

Yes, I even considered selling my apartment. Oh, because after the like, I'm going to lose my job. Yeah, that boss was very tolerable. But now I'm six months at home and I work in the IT industry, but like sales department and all it was Corona time at the time, so people were working from home, so I had a little bit of luck, yeah, but all the developers, like there's 16 there was like 16 of us, I don't know and 15 developers get got back in the office and I'm like the sales guy working from home, like it didn't make any sense.

Speaker 4 15:48

I, I could sense it that I'm going to lose my job eventually yeah, this pain is so intense though People don't understand it unless they're curious.

Speaker 1 15:59

Unless they don't know what they're talking about. That's why I mentioned a really young and healthy physical therapist. Pushed me to touch my toes. He didn't have any back pain.

Speaker 1 16:08

Private office surgeon that's the third surgeon I visited also pushed the surgery because he wanted my money. And he he explained like, uh, he's very experienced and if I don't pay and go the free route, I don't know who's going to operate on me. So it might be some young surgeon, yeah. So this is why I shouldn't choose the free surgery and pay for his surgery. And he has like a modern office kind of space. You can stay there for the recovery time and things like that. And I asked him so the MRI just done, freshly done in his office. Okay, so you're going to cut out the disc, I'm going to show it again. So you're going to cut out this part, I'm going to show it again. So you're going to cut out this part. He said, yes, this is the disc cactomy, I cannot pronounce it, well, but that's the surgery, right, so he's going to cut the disc. And I said, okay, what happens after? And he said, well, you're probably going to lose the pain, but then this disc above will herniate next. So he told me that.

Speaker 4 17:22

Oh, because of the discectomy.

Speaker 1 17:25

Because this disc is going to be weakened because they're going to go in there and they're going to cut a part out of it, and then this disc above is going to get weakened and it's going to take double the load.

Speaker 1 17:39

And then that one will usually go next, which is actually the case if you kind of read about the surgeries. So I said no deal, I don't like that deal. I want a permanent solution to my problem. I don't want to visit you every two years and give you a lot of money. That doesn't make any sense. So I was now uh lost, pretty much like I. I'm expecting to lose my job. I am expecting to lose my family. I'm expecting, expecting to sell my apartment in the big city, go back to live with my parents. I don't know what I'm going to do. And I stumbled upon, uh, dr jeff winterheimer's program on youtube.

Speaker 1 18:21

Dr jeff was on youtube, there's some videos on there and you had him as a guest on your podcast I did yes, so I was started to research about dr jeff and what he was saying and he was saying PT doesn't work because of this. It actually made sense to me because I experienced physical therapy.

Speaker 1 18:40

Yes. Then he has a video on why the decompression tables don't work. Okay, makes sense. I was looking at those videos learning more and then it all just made sense to me and I decided to actually join his program. It's the High Performance Pine Program. So long story short, but in three weeks into his program my pain went to two out of 10. Wow, and in three months into his program I was pain-free. Three years after the program, which is now, I'm still pain-free and I'm sitting right now, as you can see. So why is the program different than all the other treatments? It just completely changed my perspective on how to look at this problem.

Speaker 1 19:31

Day one, when you join the program, get to, you find out about your faulty movement patterns. So which bias you are. So, for example, uh, I'm extension bias, which means that my disc herniated in a way that if I extend my back, okay it it's. It kind of gets better a little bit, it goes back inside a little bit. It doesn't cause me pain. And when I flex, which is move forward a little bit, I get increasing pain. This is why touching the toes, driving places and just being in flexion all the time which makes sense, like my journey was bending lifting sitting.

Speaker 4 20:11

Right Driving for 20 hours.

Speaker 1 20:14

Yes, it just clicked and the program is really complex. It took a long time for Dr Jeff to kind of devise the program, but every day you just see content and you know what you need to do. You download a spreadsheet like do this in the morning, do this in the afternoon, do this in the evening. You just do the work and you'll get better. It's it's, it's that simple when you know what you need to do did you have to fly over or did?

Speaker 4 20:40

were you able to join his program online?

Speaker 1 20:43

online, so the program is entirely online. So I I found out about the program on youtube. I was in serbia, uh, I joined the program by scheduling a call and then, after the call, I was in the program and I just did the work and I got better and actually, after all of that getting better, I now work for Dr Jeff. So now I'm one of the coaches inside the High Performance Spine program. That's why I wrote Andrew High Performance Spine on there. If people can see that I don't know, and there's a logo right behind me and if you can see it.

Speaker 4 21:20

Only barely yeah.

Speaker 1 21:23

So I can say that Dr Jeff saved my life twice, and the first time was when he cured my back pain and the second time was when I actually started working for him. He gave me a job. So in the middle of the program, my boss at the time called me and said and I remember it was sunday, uh, monday morning you need to come to work.

Recovery After Surgery

Speaker 1 21:47

He tolerated me for six months right so he just said monday morning everybody is in the office, you're the sales guy. Like morning, everybody's in the office. You're the sales guy, you need to be in the office or on the field meeting people. So I said okay, and I went the next day, monday morning, and I quit my job. Oh, okay, because I was just started with the high-performance buying program and I was just started to getting some relief and I was not going back to the previous life, you can say it like that. I was not going back to driving, I was not going back to sitting at the time.

Speaker 1 22:30

While I get stronger to tolerate the load of those activities, I can drive. Now I can drive for 20 hours again. I can sit for all day long if I want to. I don't. I can stand up desk now and I walk when I need to walk, like every two hours I go for a short walk. I don't sit for eight hours straight because that caused me the issue that I have. So another interesting thing is when I joined the Head for a Science program, I started to learn and consume and learn and I figured out wait, if I only stayed at home and didn't actually drive to get all those treatments I might have like get better just by not driving, like just by not driving Right, which is not the case, but like I wouldn't get worse, at least Like I think I wouldn't get worse.

Speaker 4 23:18

Undoing all the progress.

Speaker 1 23:20

If I only knew to like walk around and do all the tips that I learned in the High Performance Line program. But like you can't help.

Speaker 4 23:33

So how long would you say to a person, try this program, and if you don't get any relief within like three weeks or three months, then it's not working. Do you have like a timeline?

Speaker 1 23:48

Well, it depends. So I have been a coach for quite some time now and I have seen people join the program who had pain for two weeks and who had pain for 40 years. I have coached a person who was 85 years old and I also coach a person who is 16 years old. So it depends on the actual injury and how long they had it. The longer they had the issue, the longer it will take to reactivate the muscles and get them pain-free. But usually the the smartest thing you can do, in my opinion, is to at least join for one month, see how it goes, uh, before doing the surgery, because I talk with people who had multiple failed surgeries on a daily basis and they are still in pain.

Speaker 4 24:41

Right.

Speaker 1 24:42

And the fusion surgery is the hardest to treat because it's just like a lot of and we have people with multiple failed fusion surgeries. Join the program and we actually get them better, but it will take a year. It takes a year to heal the disc. This is just the process of how long it takes and the discs I actually want to heal.

Speaker 1 25:04

But, as I said in my my own experience, I was not letting my disc heal because I was panicking and I was driving around and I was bending all the wrong ways and I was exercising without knowing which exercises are actually good for me and which ones are bad for me. I didn't know how to sit, I didn't know how to drive properly, I didn't know what my relief position is when you think about it. For example, the only thing that would save me from the groin pain at the beginning of joining yeah uh is laying on my stomach actually and being propped up on elbows and just that. So I just lay on my stomach a lot for like two hours a day, like 15 minutes, and then I stand up and then walk a little and then I and I was on my stomach a lot, like maybe two, like two months every day like a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot Because no pain. When I'm on my stomach, there's no pain, so it makes sense Like something good is happening Right. Keep doing what feels good, basically, yeah, and I have the full picture now to show you.

Speaker 1 26:07

Okay.

Speaker 4 26:08

So it's going to ask if you have a post, mri.

Speaker 1 26:10

Yes, so this is my disc before the high-performance spine. So this is my disc before the high-performance spine and it actually looked like that for, I think, 10 years. So I have one from 2012. And then I have one from 2022. It's exactly the same and diagnosis was the same. So L5S1 disc herniation, protrusion, and then some other kind of things, and this is my disc after the high performance spine program and I'm actually pain-free. And now even my diagnosis has changed. It's not a permeated disc protrusion anymore. Now it just says it's like a little bit degenerated and you're good to go. I really want to go back to those three surgeons and show them this. I still didn't do that, but I will probably at some point.

Speaker 4 27:06

You've mentioned that you guys work with people who have had failed surgery and they are in a lot of pain. What about people who are like post-surgery, who don't want to do physical therapy or, sorry, their doctors don't want them to do physical, because not every surgeon sends their patients for physical therapy right after surgery? Do you work with patients right?

Living Pain-Free After Disc Herniation

Speaker 1 27:31

after surgery, or do you want them to wait? All right, so that makes sense. Yes, it makes sense. So after the surgery, surgeons usually do recommend physical therapy, but after some rest time, which is usually like, yeah, six to eight weeks. So you need to wait six to eight weeks. As soon as the surgeon approves that, the patient can start exercising, they can join our program, they can join the high-performance spine program and we will get them better, even if they still have pain, because a lot of people actually, after the surgery they still have pain, it's not gone and a lot of people actually re-herniate their disc again because it's weakened, they don't stop moving incorrectly, they still put a lot of pressure on that disc because they don't know how to move better and they're not strong enough to do the activities they do on a daily basis and their disc herniates again.

Speaker 1 28:31

I had a guy actually from Serbia and and I talked with him, uh, about the hyperform spine program and he said, yeah, okay, I'm going to be careful, things like that. And then, uh, I think I like gave him a short tutorial on what he needs to do, because he's the same case as me and he's the same faulty movement patterns and everything like that, and he was like okay, and he did it for two weeks and he was getting better, like his pain went down by like five, so he was like three out of ten in pain. And then he started painting his house himself and he painted his entire house, which is like a big house, and next morning he's like I'm in pain again.

Speaker 4 29:13

Yeah, no kidding.

Speaker 1 29:16

No kidding, no-transcript, all symptoms gone now, unless I really overdo something. For example, my older kid is 50 kilograms heavy and when he wants me to lift him and I'm not really careful, like I need to brace and then hip hinge and then grab him and then I can lift him. But if I just kind of lift him like that, yeah, then I can feel some issues and it's always the groin region. So that's, that's like it's, but it's not like pain, it's like a reminder, it's like don't do that. Basically like it's just kind of like a little bit like a zap. And then I'm pain-free.

Speaker 1 30:10

But I still do all the basic activities that I learned from the program. So I still practice. I have a daily routine. I use half an hour of my day to do the core exercises for my faulty movement pattern. I still walk every day. I still invest in a quality chair. I don't sit in like some old chair. I have a chair that supports my lower back. I have a stand-up desk. I'm still being careful, but I can do whatever I want and I'm pain-free, which is the most important thing here.

Speaker 4 30:45

Yeah. Is there anything that you're limited in doing, that you wouldn't do, or do you feel 100% certain that your spine health is great and you can do whatever you want?

Speaker 1 30:55

So, for example, I wouldn't go back to working that initial job of pushing heavy rocks uphill, because that's how everything started it doesn't mean I cannot do it now, like it doesn't mean that I just won't I just won't.

Speaker 1 31:07

It doesn't mean I cannot do it now, like it doesn't mean that I just want. I just want, I just want for for any amount of money. I actually I won't go back there, yeah, so that I won't do things like that. I won't do uh heavy physical work if unless I really have to. And uh, I had some like another experience. It was uh actually in the usa, so on, uh, on 2019, this was like the fourth episode of back pain. I didn't. I can tell you this story. So I went on a program to work on alaska in the fishing industry and I was on an island that was this close to Russia actually, with 2000 bears and 32 permanent residents, and the shifts there are 16, 16, 16, 12 hours, and then it goes back to 16, 16, 16, 12. And because you're on an island with no internet connection, like I couldn't see the pictures of my kids or just communicate almost ever. You kind of want that, you want to work.

Speaker 4 32:12

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:13

And when I went there I was pain-free, I flew for like 22 hours, I was seated, everything was fine. And then they saw me on Alaska and they saw I'm a big guy, I'm a tall guy, I'm six foot three. So they gave me like a heavy, it's like a suit for the freezer and there's a really big freezer where the fish go to freeze and then they ship them and I had to push like it looks like a cage, it's really big, but it's like they told me it's like 500 pounds, but I don't know what pounds are, so I pounds, but I don't know what pounds are, so I don't care. So I was throwing those cages like this goodness right, pushing them in the fridge, yeah, for 16 hours and five days in I got the groin pain and I went to the doctor at uh, I actually waited for him to fly over for like three or four days because we were on an island and the doctor did like a hernia check. He thought I had the like a hernia hernia on my stomach and he said, no, everything is fine, you're just going to get to work a lighter job. So I was switched from that position to do something lighter, like some pallets that were not 500 pounds heavy but like 30. So I survived. That that's the point.

Speaker 1 33:31

And also in the beginning I didn't tell you this, but in the beginning, when I, when I felt that growing pain back in 2012 and onwards those episodes, they would always refer me to the doctor that checks the male parts, kind of, yeah, because the pain was there. It kind of made sense and I always came clear like I, they do all the tests, everything that there is the scans, the blood tests, everything and they didn't know why I felt pain in there. And the moment I spoke with dr jeff, he told me it's coming from the disc. And nobody here at least nobody here and that doctor on Alaska didn't conclude that, didn't know that the pain can be coming from the L5-S1 disc herniation in the back. But it actually cannot. It's a rare case but it cannot.

Speaker 4 34:22

That's great. I'm so glad that you are living your life again and that you're pain-free.

Speaker 1 34:26

That's great, I'm so glad that you are living your life again and that you're pain-free.

Speaker 4 34:29

Thank you. So if somebody wanted to work directly with you, do you have like a personal website, or would they go to highperformancespinecom?

Speaker 1 34:37

No highperformancespinecom. And then I'm one of the coaches inside the program. There's many more coaches, but all the coaches that work for dr jeff, that work with people inside the program, dr jeff himself also works with people in the program. Uh, they had back pain and you can see their stories on our website. I've found that calm. You can see, andrew, that's my story. It's a 30 minute story but you can watch it and I'm speaking with dr jeff directly and he's asking me questions, like you are now, and I'm telling him everything that's happened.

Speaker 4 35:09

So, yeah, Great, that's awesome. Do you have any last-minute wisdom that you want to share with the listeners?

Speaker 1 35:18

Be mindful. So this is an issue that can be fixed. Not every discarnation requires surgery. Actually, surgeons are pushing for surgery way too much, in my opinion. My experience is I visited three of them and one chiropractor who's not even doing surgeries and they all said my disc will never go back in. And that kind of scared me at the time and, as I said, I was prepared to sell my apartment, go back living with my parents because I need to have the surgery, lose my job and then the two months recovery period and who's going to take care of my kids? Wife alone, but that's hard. Yeah.

Qualifying for Back Pain Recovery

Speaker 1 35:55

Yeah, so just be mindful. And if you can schedule the consultation with high performance, fine, we can help you. If we can't help you, we're not going to let you in the program. You need to qualify for the program actually.

Speaker 4 36:15

Andrew, thank you so much for being willing to come on the show and share your story.

Speaker 1 36:20

Thank you too.

Speaker 4 36:21

I'm sure it'll be a hope and some insight to our listeners. I hope, and if you are a listener and you have a positive story of recovery from a serious back or neck injury, head over to bedbackbeyondcom and click share your story. I'd love to include your voice on the show. Bye, andrew.