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Positives
I have changed a lot since the accident, before the accident I was ignorant of peoples suffering and problems, I now have a lot of empathy for all types of people who suffer under Australia’s increasing ignorance.
Governments and the media are to blame constantly sending messages out about people ripping off the system or people being caught defrauding centrelink or insurance companies but absolutely no stories about the increasing amount of homeless people, or the increasing racism in our country. No stories about the struggles of people like me, no stories about the hardship faced by indigenous communities, etc. I could form a great list of people whose lives have gone from bad to worse, we must start listening to this part of our community and give them a voice. Newspapers and television stations must take responsibility for this too I remember the papers constantly bringing up the amount of people still in poverty after priminister Bon Hawke stated “no one will be living in poverty by the year 2000” but since the Howard government took over there are no stories about this subject at all. And there is no doubt been a substantial increase since the Howard government brought in the 6 week penalty (now 8 weeks) for minor breaches at centrelink, and cut funding for job training. The centrelink penalty is enforced even when its Centrelinks fault, and if the person has no family to help them they have no choice but to become homeless. My nephew was penalised under this system, at age 21 a close mate of his committed suicide, the next day his remaining friends gathered him and they all went camping that day (a Friday) so that they could help each other deal with it. He returned home on Sunday, on Monday he discovered Centerlink had tried to contact him on the Friday and because they couldn’t they imposed the 6 week penalty, he appealed but they would not change their mind, if it had not been for his family he would have had no choice but to become homeless, and offcourse this did nothing for his mental state.
Backs
I’m constantly amazed by people who think all back pain is the same, nothing could be further from the truth. Back’s are very complex there are many different problems which can cause back pain, the most common problem is caused by degeneration of the disc’s in the back which are located in-between the vertebrae this is caused by wear over time and by lifting items which are too heavy. If the person does not take action by strengthening their stomach muscles, losing weight or stopping lifting heavy items or making sure they lift using the correct technique, the nerves will be permanently damaged and this can lead to very bad pain in the back and can also lead to pain down the back of the person’s legs.
Then there is pain caused by accidents the most common people know about is known as a “broken back” this term is not very accurate as there are different forms of “broken backs” the most common would be a fractured vertebrae which as long as there is no damage to nerves or the spinal column, often does not lead to long term back pain and most people return close to full health after a few months. The other is offcourse a broken back which includes damage to the spinal column and this leads to loss of use of legs, etc.
There may well be other types of damage in the back which cause back pain also, but as yet they are not recognised or detectable yet.
My pain is caused by damage to the nerves which at this time is very hard to diagnose as per my previous reasons although after 2 years I was lucky enough to have a doctor who sent me for a discography and this provided proof of my nerve pain.
Lots of people suffer from back pain but this is often only mild pain which goes away after a couple of days but people often think this type of pain is what everyone who has back pain suffers from.
Contact
Please contact me at painsufferer@yahoo.com.au if you would like to discuss back pain or long term pain.
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