“There is nothing else we can do for you, surgery is your next option.” As I tried to shake off the brain fog, from the heavy amount of painkillers I was on, I was asking myself, “How did I get here?” This was the third doctor this week that had said this same sentence to me. My pain management doctor told me we had done the maximum number of epidurals to my spine in a 6-month period and that I was already at the highest dose of pain medication he could give me; surgery was the next step. The opiate medication from my neurologist that my body had become addicted to wasn’t working, so he said surgery is the final option. Now sitting in my neurosurgeon’s office, I was hearing the same thing. We have exhausted all our options; the next step is surgery. I guess I should have seen this one coming; a surgeon wanting to do surgery, go figure.

I was a few months removed from my second car accident in just over a year. Right as I was starting to come out of the neck pain from my first accident, I was hit again. This time reaggravating the neck even worse and had a small fracture in my low back to top it off. My right hand had half the strength as my non-dominant left hand, and I couldn’t hold it still from shaking. Eating soup or drinking hot coffee was a real treat. There was a constant kind of burning pain from my neck through my right shoulder blade. This caused frequent headaches and a persistent pain that wore me down the way running water can weather rocks away to small pebbles. The worst of it was the low back pain though. Yes, it was constant like the neck, but way more volatile. The pain in it could flare up so bad it would bring me to tears and scrambling for my prescription painkiller cocktail. I was 21 years old and staring down the barrel of fusion surgeries for both my neck and low back. After going home and researching the outcomes of spinal surgeries, I was horrified. Was this really it? Have I really exhausted all my options? Was this what my life was going to be like? Over the next week or so, trying desperately to pull myself out of some sort of pain induced depression, I came to one conclusion. This surgery might be inevitable, but I am going to do anything and everything I can to delay it.

Now I wish I could say this was when my health changed course. The point on the graph where the trend made a switch and started trending upward. That unfortunately wasn’t the case. The long version of this story involves more accidents, migraines, a neurologic disorder and an even more real rock bottom. Though as I look back to that point with the knowledge of everything I have now, what was true was that I had no way come close to exhausting all my options. I had used up all the options a prescription pad could give me or a needle could inject in me. What I hadn’t depleted yet was the countless ways my body could heal naturally. How come no one talked to me about where my body’s inflammation levels were at and how my diet could affect that? No one talked to me about where I was at mentally. I never got asked how I was handling all this nor was provided any techniques that could change my brain neurochemistry to promote a greater sense of well-being. Never was my body assessed to see how my muscles were functioning, if I had any weaknesses, limitations or imbalances (I did try to see a physical therapist, but they refused to see me if I continued seeing a chiropractor, so that didn’t last long). If I could talk to my younger self that day, I would give him so many practices, techniques and knowledge that could have helped the healing process go so much faster. But then would I have seen how powerful these practices could be without going through all that pain? Would I still appreciate them as much as I do now?

What I am happy to say is that conclusion I made that day was only partly correct. Not only did I delay that surgery, but have healed my body to a place that surgery is not even needed anymore. I compete athletically, work tirelessly, and live pain free because I tapped into the endless potential of my body to heal naturally. As Dr. Zach Bush says, “there is either health or the absence of health” and the body will only heal in a state of being healthy. Now there is a time and place for prescriptions and medications, but if you are going down that journey to heal, make sure you really are exhausting all your options. That way you can put your best foot forward and give yourself the greatest potential to LIVE FREE.

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Have You Really Exhausted All Your Options?