I Hate Spending Money on This…

For anyone who knows me, I hate spending money. I am cheap and I would rather eat cardboard for a week then spend money on overpriced groceries. Going to the grocery store with my wife turns into a “huff fest” of me deeply breathing about how expensive Snack Bars are these days. Needless to say, my wife “loves” taking me shopping with her.

Today, on my morning off from the clinic, I drove my car to my favorite local garage and said with a smile to the gentleman running the garage, “I’d like to get an oil change for my car.” I did so without a moment’s hesitation or frustration about the $50 I was about to spend to let some teenager underneath my car and change my oil.
Usually, a random $50 would frustrate me and I’d pitch a fit, but I didn’t do it for this expense! Why?

Because I firmly understand that if I don’t pay this $50, I will pay $5,000 or more later on to repair or replace my car’s engine; or replace my car altogether. I love my car and I want it to last as long as possible, so I’ll do whatever it takes to maintain it, because I’ve seen some of the bills to repair a car that wasn’t maintained properly. It’s clear; I’d rather pay now for something small, then be driving blissfully along the road and suddenly my car’s engine begins to smoke and sputter.
It’s the aversion to a larger cost that compels me to pay for this small, yet regular cost to maintain my car.

This aversion to future larger costs is a very powerful force that changes my perspective when they ask to swipe my card at the garage then at the grocery store. How come so many people adopt this philosophy of aversion to a larger cost when it comes to machines or engines, but not their low back?

People are working in jobs and have hobbies that are causing their spine to be completely demolished, but nothing is felt until the problem gets so severe that major action must take place. This causes people to carry on with their lives unaware that a ticking time bomb is about to go off in their low back, that they will struggle with for the rest of their life.
80% of Americans WILL have low back pain at some point in their life, and 43% will have some form of chronic low back pain that they will struggle with for the rest of their life.

So why does no one adopt the philosophy of aversion to future costs and take care of their low back now? Because pain is the only metric that we know how to gauge if there is a problem or not in our body. I’m here to tell you that if Pain has already started, then that issue has been brewing for quite some time.

We need to educate people on the other factors they should look for before pain even shows up.
1. Stiffness
2. Morning Aches
3. Reduced Range of Motion/Reduced Flexibility
4. When you stand up, you feel the need to take a moment to “stretch it out”

If you experience any of these, yet you keep thinking it’ll all go away in time-you’ll be right! That pain will go away in about 4 weeks, and you’ll think you avoided another trip to the chiropractor. Yay, for not having to spend any money!!!! However, that small problem that caused the pain leaves a trail of damage in your spine that lays dormant until the next injury, when it comes back 2x as badly. You might even be lucky enough to avoid a doctor trip that episode of low back pain-but your body remembers it.

The next episode of low back pain is unfortunately most people’s undoing. It’s so severe that they can’t move, can’t go to work, and struggle to use the restroom. The issue that has been brewing in the lumbar spine has gradually become such a severe problem that, all of a sudden, has become this life-altering event. “But all you did was bend over and pick something up” how could it possibly be this bad from something so small and insignificant? It’s not that action that set your back on fire, it’s the conglomerate effect of the last 3 years of back pain avoidance efforts that has led to this point. Those little problems, added together, are now making your 35 year old body feel like it just got body slammed by Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson.

This is your event that will force you to repair or replace an entire section of your spine that is going to cost you $$$ in the range of $10,000-$50,000; and don’t forget about the physical therapy after surgery. You will have no choice but to get the surgery to repair a disc or a joint so damaged by years of micro-traumas. The orthopedic or neurosurgeon that cuts you open will think to himself, “How did someone so young end up on my table?”
They are used to opening up old, degenerative spines; but it’s becoming more and more common for people to have a spine surgery or two by their 40th birthday.

The fact is that surgery avoidance for the lumbar spine is not Rocket Science. It takes common sense approaches to healthy spinal hygiene to avoid “The Big Event” that puts you on an operating table at 35 years old. I’m here to tell you that if you end up on an operating table for your back, the chances you will struggle with chronic low back pain are about as close to 100% as you can get. There are some successful surgeries, but unfortunately they are rare for long-term success past 3 years after the surgery.

So how can we avoid being part of those statistics of chronic back pain sufferers?
Adopt the strategy I had when paying for an oil change. Yeah, my car isn’t making any noises or smoking yet, but I know this step is necessary to prevent it from eventually happening. It’s time we treat our low back’s better than we do our Ford’s and Toyota’s.

You may not have pain, but you have stiffness and you wake up each day with a tight back-FIX IT NOW! Fixing that is so easily done and a good clinician will ensure you strengthen your spine so that you never have this problem again. It is much easier to change the oil then change the transmission. Likewise, restoring proper motion into the joint of your spine is much easier than cutting through your skin and layers of muscle and cutting out parts of your disc and then sewing you back up and hoping it all heals properly without any side effects. HA! Good luck!

Fix that little insignificant problem now, I promise you’ll never regret that investment!