Back Pain Follow-Up and Results

'Nothing is terminal. Everything is transitional. What looks like the end of the road will turn out to be a bend."
                    Robert Schuller

With most methods of back pain treatment it is hard to be certain that the treatment works, and how well it works. How long does it work? Why does it work? What complications develop?

Unless treating practitioners maintain careful long-term follow-up data about all patients, they will have no idea of the answers to the above questions. Virtually no practitioners who treat back pain – surgeons, physicians, physiotherapists, acupuncturists, chiropractors and masseurs included – appear to have any contact with their patients after initial treatment. They tend to presume that if patients do not return then they must be pain free. More likely they have gone elsewhere.

I elected to contact every patient I treated 12 months after the initial treatment. I asked each patient to complete a written questionnaire. I had given no instructions as to exercise, weight loss, tablets, lifestyle changes or indeed any instruction which could be seen to produce or influence as result.
I delayed the follow-up for 12 months to make sure that the benefit was long-lasting and to avoid confusing pain-relief with local anaesthetic effect, ‘placebo response’, or auto-suggestion. If the survey showed the patient had significant pain relief, I could reasonably attribute that to the treatment performed by me twelve months before.

During the survey period six hundred patients were treated. Written follow-ups were achieved from 447 of these. This is considered a very high response rate and increases the validity of the results.
Patients were asked to fill in a simple questionnaire rating their current pain and disability into one of six categories as compared with pre-treatment pain levels twelve months before.
1.    Moderate improvement
2.    Market improvement
3.    Total resolution
Any of these responses was considered a good result.
4.    Mild improvement
5.    No change
6.    Worse
These responses were considered unsatisfactory results.

By these definitions, 310 or 69.4 per cent of patients achieved a good result.
By aggregating the follow-up results into this two-directional outcome (i.e good or bad) it was easier to obtain meaningful statistical analysis.

Almost all those who showed improvement commented on the markedly increased mobility of the area treated and previously tender trigger points were no longer present. None of those who were worse attributed the progression to the Nesfield’s Treatment procedure performed twelve months previously, but rather to the passage of time.

In general, the results of people who had undergone previous spinal surgery were not as good as those who had not. In this group of patients, 31 per cent achieved a satisfactory outcome and 69 per cent an unsatisfactory one.

	No of patients	%
Worse	18	4.0
No change	82	18.3
Mild improvement	37	8.3
Moderate improvement	67	15.0
Marked improvement	162	36.2
Total resolution	81	18.2
TOTAL	447	100

It is extremely difficult to prove how Nesfield’s Treatment works, but it is infinitely easier to prove, by the use of statistics like those in the table that it does work – although I am well aware of what can be done with statistics.

Medically, of course, my figures prove nothing because my peers consider this an uncontrolled medical trial. But, I am pleased to report, professional analysis of the results proves them to be ‘highly statistically significant’.

The data were given to a qualified statistician, Mr Mark Norrie, now of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, who performed an extensive statistical evaluation of my data. He concluded that: ‘Even though there was not a control group, the results showed a high degree of statistical significance. In simple terms, the chances of these results occurring randomly are approximately 28 million to one’.

Mr Norrie believes, from these statistics, that I have strong proof the procedure works and that it works for 70 per cent of the people upon whom it is performed.

The problem with Nesfield’s Treatment is that it is not currently accepted medical practice, unlike fusion or laminectomy. Main-stream modern medicine refuses to accept that Nesfield’s Treatment works. Until they accept that it does, no research will be done.

Although the situation is frustrating, it is also understandable. The stringent requirements from medical authorities are in the main designed to prevent quackery. (Readers will know there are many quacks working in the field of bad backs). There was a man in Cooma who used a rabbit’s tail to ‘brush’ pain from the patient’s back, down the thighs and finally out through the ankles.   After an appearance on national television in 1977, he became so busy that he had a heart attack from the pressure of work and died.
I know of another quack who diagnosed back problems by first briefly but fiercely peering into a patient’s eyes. Then he would move around behind and poke his finger into the top of neck at the base of cranium, hold it there and order the patient to lift his arms up and down a couple of times before pronouncing him ‘much better’. Patients were always given appointments for more treatment before they left. When some of them failed to turn up, he would ring and soundly abuse them – and shame them into coming back. He made a lot of money this way.

There are also many families with what I call ‘Uncle Ernies’ in them. They know how to ‘crack’ bad backs and necks. One day an Uncle Ernie will probably not only crack a back or a neck but he will break it as well – if it hasn’t happened already.

However, I do make the point that where a treatment verifiably and consistently works in more than 50 per cent of cases, it should be more closely looked at. This was one of the great tragedies in the medical fraternity’s dismissal of Dr Rees’s treatment.  They simply ignored the central fact that the procedure worked in a great number of cases.

Back Pain Relief Testimonials (Case 23 - 26)

Case 23 – Lower back pain in a male aged 64 years

Mr Robert House
Lockleys, SA

This man had suffered from fluctuating low back pain for about 35 years. The pain had become much worse over the six months prior to seeing me and had begun to radiate to both buttocks and down both legs. He had been told that his pain was due to ‘lumbar spondylitis’ and that nothing would help. He tried an assortment of tablets and physiotherapy, and had been advised not to seek chiropractic.
Within one week of the first treatment, his leg pain had vanished and his back pain had lessened. After three treatments his legs are still 100 per cent and his back pain is much less than previously.

Mr House comments:
All the pain in my hips and legs has gone. I am most grateful for this. The pain is now contained to one small area of my back. I am more than happy with the treatment.

Case 24 – Lumbar pain in a female aged 57 years

Mrs Gladys Lahey
Burleigh Waters, QLD

By the time she saw me, Gladys had suffered agonising low back and leg pain for thirty years. The pain was worse on the right side and radiated down her right buttock, thigh and calf. In the two months prior to our consultation she became rapidly worse. She had tried multiple treatments, taken many different medications, been hospitalised on a number of occasions and seen different specialists. She was told she had osteoporosis and that ‘nothing could be done’. Her pain was so intense that she often needed two sticks to walk with and an air cushion to sit on.
Trigger points were easy to feel in her lumbar and buttock region. Her pain vanished rapidly after the treatment and she has been virtually pain free ever since.

Mrs Lahey comments:
I was in agony before I was treated by Dr Stuckey and completely dependent on others to even move from the floor or bed on which I had to be. After one treatment from Dr Stuckey I could feel a big improvement and after three treatments over a couple of weeks I was leading a normal life including driving the car, shopping and house-work, none of which I would attempt before.

Case 25 – Low back pain in a 48 year old male

Mr Terry Davenport
City Beach, WA

This man developed severe back and leg pain after an accident ten years before seeing me. At the time he was hospitalised and his initial pain slowly subsided. Whilst he continued to improve, he also had stiffness and mild discomfort in his lumbar region. He was forced to sell his fishing business because he was unable to continue with heavy manual work. Three months prior to seeing me, he had another severe episode of back pain.
After performing the treatment twice, he experienced a marked reduction in his back pain over three years.

Mr Davenport comments:
There has been a significant reduction in my back pain and my spine feels more mobile.
Case 26 – Lumbar pain in a female aged 56 years

Mrs Roberta Johnstone
Brisbane, QLD

This lady injured her back twice in separate falls in 1983 and 1990. Her low back pain became excruciating following the second fall. She was forced to leave her job and accept an invalid pension. She was in constant pain night and day, slept poorly, and took an abundance of painkillers, including narcotics. She often needed a stick to walk and had to sit on a rubber cushion. She saw many doctors and specialist and was told that the pain came from a narrow spinal cord and that no operation would help her and that her working days were over.
After treating her, most of her pain has gone. She still has some niggles, however, but sleeps normally, does not need a walking stick or her rubber cushion. She feels she would not have lost her job if she had had this treatment years ago.

Mrs Johnstone comments:
I have a quality of life that I did not think I would ever have again.

At present, I have some seven hundred similar case studies on file, all attesting to varying degrees of success after Nesfield’s Treatment. Conversely, I have some three hundred where the treatment has not helped at all, although it does not seem to have made the pain worse, unlike some treatments.

I am rather surprised by the often muted response of patients who have gained relief from Nesfield’s Treatment. Despite the low-key reaction to their improved pain status, I have found there is a great deal of residual anger in patients when they realise that many years of their lives have been wasted putting up with their pain. If only someone – their doctors or specialists – had told them about the treatment earlier.
More importantly though, the patients listed here have now been liberated from their pain sufficiently to re-enter the process of enjoying pain-free lifestyles – or rejoining the human race. The cost has been minimal, the procedure simple, the recovery rapid and the results have been permanent, without the slightest sign of undue side effects. In my opinion, they are living, irrefutable evidence that Nesfield’s Treatment works.

No wonder they are apprehensive!

Following is a patient’s own version of how Nesfield’s Treatment can benefit.

I suffered an injury on my back at the age of 14 when I slipped and crashed back-first into the protruding corner of a brick wall while running at full speed. Although the injury left me hobbling badly, the pain in my hip and back gradually subsided over a period of months. Two years later, however, my back virtually collapsed while competing at an athletics meeting. The pain was excruciating; I could barely turn my head without pain. I was taken to hospital by ambulance and X-rayed. An intern, after throwing me around on the table like a rag doll, gruffly told me I had probably just pulled a muscle and referred me to a prominent physiotherapist.

For several weeks, I could not sit without great pain, could not walk without pain – there was nothing I could do without pain. My school friends at the boarding school I attended helped me dress and undress and assisted me in the shower. Two months later, experiencing no relief from physiotherapy whatsoever, my mother took me to a well-known chiropractor who relieved me of all pain in one short treatment. I resumed playing football within a week and lived a relatively pain-free, active life for the 24 years, although I was always aware of a nagging ache in my lower back where the injury had taken place. I became a college athletics champion and later a representative Rugby Union player. At times, I used to manipulate my back myself and make it ‘crack back in’ if it ached too much.

At the age of forty, my pain suddenly returned overnight and began changing my life dramatically. Within a few months I could not walk any more than a few yards without sickening pain running down my right leg into my foot and into my big toe. I could not stand in one spot without the same pain, although I could squat, sit and lie flat in comfort. I went to a chiropractor who manipulated my spine several times with no success. He told me my vertebrae were too loose and that the bad disc kept ‘popping out’.
I went to a general practitioner who insisted I have a blood test before he recommended me to a specialist. I still wonder what my blood had to do with my back. I did not have the blood test but went to another doctor for referral to a specialist. In the interim, I went to another chiropractor who, after a couple of unsuccessful manipulations, decided my condition was too bad for him to treat. I then went to a respected orthopaedic surgeon who bluntly told me to exercise and lose weight, although even if I did, I would probably require spinal fusion, or that I would have to just live with my pain. It did not occur to him that I was more or less beyond exercise by then. I gave up for a while and tried to live with the condition.
During this time, however, I did try exercising after taking painkillers, mainly Ecotrin (a heavy dosage of aspirin) and going for short walks and playing squash with my son. I also took painkillers before going out to social events so that I could stand up and talk to people face to face. Usually by the end of the evening, however, when the painkillers had worn off, I found myself squatting at people’s feet trying to talk up to them, like a dwarf.
I was afraid of surgery; I had heard of at least one case where a patient had died during back surgery and another whose lungs had collapsed during it and who had been emphysemic ever since. By then, I was certain the heavy daily doses of aspirin were giving me an irregular heartbeat.
The pain continued to grow worse and I gave up any form of exercise. I quite seriously began to think that the rest of my life would be spent lying in bed, sitting at my desk and squatting on the floor. Luckily, I was self-employed and worked mainly from home using a computer; I knew I could continue my career – as long as I didn’t have to go anywhere.
I then heard about an enzyme injection that apparently dissolved troublesome slipped discs.  I found a specialist who gave the injection and travelled from Queensland to Sydney to see him. He took a look at my X-rays and told me my back was so bad that his enzyme treatment would not help it. He also recommended surgery.
At the age of 43, and a solo father to three teenagers, I was a virtual cripple. I could barely walk and my right foot was beginning to flop when I walked.
In desperation, I went to an acupuncturist, who was also a qualified paediatrician. Before giving me acupuncture, he demanded that I breathe into a carbon monoxide levels testing machine. When I did, he rudely abused me for being a smoker. He then reached forward and grabbed the fold of flesh between my eyebrows above my nose and roughly jabbed a very long and painful acupuncture needle into the flesh, and twirled it; it was as though he was punishing me for smoking. I was then ordered to lie down on my stomach whereupon he thrust a multitude of needles into my back, my ears, on my claves and around my ankles; it was extremely painful. I remained in that position for an hour gritting my teeth with pain. When he took the needles out and I was finally allowed to go, I found myself free of back pain – for just an hour. The next day, however, I was barely able to walk, not only because of my back, but also because of the pain in my calves from the needles. It took about ten days before they recovered.
I went to a physiotherapist who, after using ultra-sound on my back, trussed me up like a turkey in a leather harness on an auto-traction machine that ‘surged’, stretching me and then letting me go, stretching me and letting me go. It was uncomfortable to say the least and when I got out of the thing my pain had increased by twenty per cent. I could hardly move. I would not have been surprised to find that I was several inches taller as well.
With some reluctance, or desperation, I then went to a psychic masseuse who had reputedly had a great deal of success with bad backs. She gave me the most lovely ninety minute massage. At the end of it, when I sat up, she told me she had just had a flash of my past lives and would I mind if she told me about them? What could I say? She went on to say that in one distant past life I have been one of Ghengis Khan’s soldiers and in my most recent past life, I had apparently been a Greek woman. I thanked her for the information and hobbled off; my pain was no better.
A short time later, a friend showed me a contraption that he had bought to ease his own back pain. It was a traction machine, like a revolving bed, where you strapped yourself in by the ankles and rotated the bed until you hung upside down by your ankles. I lay on the bed, strapped myself in and lay back. The thing suddenly spun madly and hurled me around, eventually stopping and leaving me hanging upside down by my ankles, trying to recover from the fright it had given me. In the aftermath my pain was at least as bad, if not worse, than before.
I firmly decided against seeking any further treatment for my back pain.
Late in 1990, however, a friend sent me a booklet written by a Dr W Skyrme Rees in Sydney in the late 1970’s about a simple surgical procedure Dr Rees performed for the treatment of back pain, apparently with great results. I read the booklet carefully three times; it seemed too good to be true (by nature I was a sceptical person and even more so in light of my experiences). It was a tatty old photocopied version of the book and, judging by the age of Dr Rees when he wrote it, I doubted he would still be practising, or even be alive by then. There was a phone number on the booklet which I rang out of curiosity. To my surprise, the old man answered the phone himself.
Within a week, I was in his surgery receiving the treatment which he called rhizolysis. The whole procedure – six incisions – took just a few minutes and, apart from the discomfort of receiving local anaesthetics, I didn’t feel any pain during the course of it. Because it was the end of the day and because I had travelled such a long way to see him, Dr Rees offered me a Scotch which I accepted. I then spent another hour with him talking about his work. He was a fascinating man. After a third Scotch, I picked up my suitcase and walked 100 metres to catch a taxi. Significantly I felt no pain, although I assumed initially that was because of the local anaesthetic – or the Scotch.
I awoke the next morning feeling sore from where the incisions had been made but aware that my usual pain seemed to be absent. Later that morning I photocopied 150 pages in triplicate of a document at a client’s office; it took more than an hour standing beside the photocopier. I was amazed to find myself still standing with a minimum of discomfort at the end of it. A day later I flew home to Queensland. Three days later I realised with certainty that the procedure had taken away about 99 per cent of my pain. I was also aware that I still had full sensation in the area where the procedure was performed.
Now 2 ½ years later, I have no pain whatsoever, I walk, run, swim, waterski and travel – everything I used to do before the onset of my pain. I have re-married and, so far, fathered two more children. I am absolutely, delightfully free of my pain and have resumed my life. I have been very lucky.
Naturally, I have told many people about my experience, including pain sufferers and the occasional doctor. Frequently, I have been greeted with tolerant smiles (as though they expect me to fall to bits one day because my nerves have been cut!). One doctor had the hide to tell me that my pain had vanished probably as a result of ‘auto-suggestion’. A number of my back pain suffering acquaintances, however, have consequently undergone the procedure, which I now know as Nesfield’s Treatment, and most have been thrilled at the results.
Apart from the relief and joy I still experience in the recurring realisation that I am free of pain, there is apart of me that is still deeply angry that I suffered four years of agony without knowing about Nesfield’s Treatment; that a friend had to inform me of it, not a doctor. I am totally convinced that some of the specialists I went to knew about Nesfield’s Therapy (or rhizolysis as they would have called it) but none saw fit to tell me.

This story is one of the many that I have listened to in my surgery. While these tales of horror once used to shock me, I have come to realise just how much misunderstanding there still is regarding the treatment of back pain and how many sufferers there are.

Having endured many years of severe pain patients often get depressed and, sometimes, even suicidal. Rather than being told of possible treatment options they are often told to ‘get on with life and to live with their pain’. I often see patients who are considering ‘ending it all’ so they will not have to endure more pain. Those who undergo Nesfield’s Treatment usually experience significant back pain reduction. Unfortunately, most patients are not told of this treatment.

Back Pain Treatment Testimonials (Cases 19-22)

Case 19 – Neck, lower back and leg pain in a 58 year old male

Mr Leo Steer
Kallaroo, WA

Leo was involved in a motor accident in 1958, following which he developed neck and back pain. Although the pain was constant, he continued to work. A subsequent motor accident in 1979 aggravated his condition considerably. Following those two accidents, his neck pain and headaches became excruciatingly severe and he was unable to work. His low back pain and leg pain were also very bad, but it was the neck pain and headaches which dominated his life. Conventional treatments made no difference and when he saw me in 1988 he seemed sincere in his suicidal intent if I did not lessen his pain.
The treatment was performed on a number of occasions in both his neck and low back. Since finishing the treatment his pain has gone.

Mr Steer comments:
I am elated to inform you that the previously highly painful condition has completely resolved and my mobility and function has been restored in full. My suicidal thoughts of four years ago have vanished as my pain is now a memory of yesteryear.
Case 20 – Neck, lower back and leg pain in a 35 year old male

Mr Graham Forlonge
Kingscliff, NSW

Prior to 1986 Graham was a member of the police force and an A grade Rugby League player. In the course of duty in 1986, he was involved in a high speed accident. There were no external signs of massive injuries, but he rapidly developed severe back, leg, neck and head pain. It was a long three years until I met him and he describes those years as the worst of his life.
He suffered intense headaches and neck pain. Pain and numbness shot down his arms and he lost a lot of power from his upper limbs. Back pain tortured him 24 hours per day with constant leg pains. He constantly ached in both groin and testicles, had severe shooting pains to his groin and a burning sensation in both thighs. He was unable to work, required one or two walking sticks to get about and was unable to stand for more than two hours at a time.

He had trouble controlling his bladder and was up 6-7 times per night to pass urine.
During those three years of ‘hell’ he had seen many doctors, specialists and therapists. Despite his severe disabilities, nothing abnormal showed up on the extensive investigations he underwent. One doctor had even implied that he might be malingering. All therapy had produced no change. At age 37 he was an unemployed, unemployable medical cripple.

After the first treatment, the burning pain in his hip resolved and his bladder control returned. After the second treatment, his leg pain lessened; after the third his back and groin pain resolved; after the fourth his headaches ceased; fifth treatment, his arm pain stopped; sixth, his neck pain ceased and with the seventh treatment his leg pains resolved. He threw away his walking stick, commenced jogging and began coaching Rugby. During the next four years virtually none of his previous pains troubled him. He is again heavily involved in sport (not competitively) and has been working full time as a security officer.

Mr Forlonge comments:
I can now do most non-contact sports (golf, jogging, gym, swimming and walking) and find I can do most things in moderation. I am employed full time by a security firm and, before this treatment, would not have believed all of this was possible.

Case 21 – Lumbar, thoracic, cervical pain in a male aged 35 years

Mr Ian Murdock
Kirra, QLD

This man suffered severe back and neck pain for five years. Part of this was thought to be due to injury while in the armed services and part due to a condition called ankylosing spondylitis. This latter condition is an inflammatory or rheumatic condition affecting the ligaments and bones of the vertebral column. Certainly his X-rays and blood tests confirmed that he did in fact have ankylosing spondylitis. But that was not causing all of his discomfort. He was taking large doses of analgesics each day to control his pain.
Following five treatments (two in his neck, two in the mid back and one lumbar), he only has a fraction of the pain he used to experience and takes only one tablet per day instead of his previous ten. He still has ankylosing spondylitis but virtually no pain.

Mr Murdock comments:
Since the treatment, I have found my lifestyle to have changed greatly. I have reduced all medications dramatically and find it much easier to move. My neck and shoulder movement was severely restricted but is now quite free. When told of this procedure, I was sceptical of any improvement but can certainly testify that it worked wonders for me.

Case 22 – Leg pain in a male aged 57 years

Mr Peter Dawe
Tugun, QLD

Mr Dawe had severe right-side leg and calf pain for two months. It was a lot worse when he walked or stood and there was some numbness in his leg. This situation sounded very much like a genuinely prolapsed disc but computed tomography (CAT) scan failed to confirm this. He was told he had a ‘pinched sciatic nerve’ even though the CAT scan was normal.
Following one treatment all his pain vanished, and he is now fully active in a busy newsagency.
(NOTE: it is my custom not to treat people who have had less than six months pain as most cases will spontaneously resolve within this time. I made an exception here because Mr Dawe was desperate to resume work and the speed of resolution – less than one week – left no doubt that it was the procedure that did this).
 

Mr Dawe comments:
The pain disappeared completely within a few days of the treatment. There has been no recurrence and I have since bought a newsagency and work long hours.

Back Pain Patient Case Studies (14-18)

Case 14 – Lower back pain in a male aged 53 years
Mr Malcolm Gillespie
Nerang, QLD

Malcolm’s back pain had fluctuated over twenty years but had become worse and had travelled into his left thigh and left knee. There was a numb sensation in his thigh. Other treatments had provided only temporary relief.

The treatment was performed on one occasion and during the following weeks his pain resolved. He had had virtually no pain eighteen months later.

Mr Gillespie comments:
I have been able to resume working without any recurrence of the pain. Surgery has not been necessary as your procedure healed previous problems.

Case 15 – Lower back pain in a male aged 69 years
Mr Douglas Clark
Beaumaris, VIC

This man’s lumbar pain had plagued him for twenty years. The severity of the pain fluctuated and was generally worse on the right side. The pain tended to be worse in the morning and improved during the day. Previous treatments were not effective and the arthritis tablets had aggravated a stomach ulcer. He was told his pain was due to osteoarthritis and disc collapse.
In the eighteen months following the treatment he had no pain.

Mr Clark comments:
The improvement is quite dramatic but difficult to measure. I can now do a range of simple things (like putting on my own socks) without pain.

Case 16 – Lower back pain in a male aged 50 years
Mr John Foley
Tugun, QLD

John experienced low back pain for fifteen years. This was thought to originate from his sporting pursuits in his youth as a tower diver during which time he had three accidents. His pain fluctuated but he was only pain free for one day out of three. In addition to his lower back pain, he had a cold sensation running down the front of his left thigh.
The treatment was performed on four occasions and led to the abolition of most of his pain. He had previously been advised that nothing would help him.

Mr Foley comments:
Apart from an intermittent sciatic pain, I now have no lower back pain at all. The procedure was most capably carried out and has my personal recommendation.

Case 18 – Back pain in a male aged 32 years
Mr Malcolm Marcus
Wagga Wagga, NSW

Aged 32, Malcolm is a building construction supervisor. He had, however, suffered severe lumbar pain for eight years. He invariably suffered severe lumbar pain after lifting heavy materials on the building sites he worked at. Lighter duties allowed him to work with minor discomfort. Manipulations gave temporary relief.
The procedure was performed on three occasions and in the following four years he had only mild discomfort. Heavy manual work does not produce the severe pain it used to.

Mr Marcus comments:
After receiving the procedure on my back, around 60 per cent of my pain had gone by the next morning. I have had two further treatments and have not been incapacitated by any back troubles since. Up until these procedures were affected, for a period of three years I was unable to work 3-4 days every two months because of back pain.