Lindsay Founds is a young public relations executive in her 30s but she admits she looks like she’s in her 90s. It’s not a result of poor diet or lack of exercise. It’s that Lindsay (pictured) suffers with chronic back pain. Her last bout was five months ago and she’s still not completely healed.

“In November, I had to take two days off of work just laying on my stomach,” she said. “But compared to some of my friends, one of which is still in the hospital — two days isn’t that bad. It interrupts my life because I constantly have to think about it. When I fly, I have to ask the flight attendants if I can stand for the majority of the trip. Not only do I have to think about it, but so does my family. I always sit at the end of the table so I can discreetly get up every so often. I can’t take long car trips, at holidays I’ve had to go lay down for periods of time.”

The pain is debilitating for Lindsay who describes it as “a constant migraine pain that upgrades to shooting excruciating pain when I move”.

The pain originates near her tailbone in her left buttock and radiates down her leg. “I can’t bend down or the pain shoots so sharply that I fall to the ground and I’m no wimp!” she said. “My left foot also goes numb and there’s a tingling sensation down the back of my left calf. So putting on pants, tying my shoes, picking up anything is a nightmare. Sitting down is so painful that I couldn’t drive or sit at work for any length of time. I’m slowly getting better — I can drive now and I have the feeling back in my foot but getting up from a seated position, I look like I’m 90 years old.”

No-one has been able to pinpoint exactly what triggered the onset of the problem for Lindsay. “I’m assuming it’s just years of wear and tear with sports and not having a strong core and poor flexibility in my legs to support my lower back. After multiple doctors visits, I finally got an MRI and was diagnosed with bulging/herniated S1, L5 (sacral and lumbar vertebrae of the lower back) discs that put pressure on my sciatic nerve.”

Lindsay’s earliest memory of a problem goes back to when she was 17 years old playing field hockey in high school.

“I started experiencing symptoms of sciatica (intense shooting pain down the back of the leg) but passed the leg pain off as a pulled muscle. After going to a chiropractor, the pain went away,” she said.

But the pain returned with a vengeance eight years later. “When I was 25 years old, I was walking in Manhattan after work and I stepped on uneven pavement and went down like a tonne of bricks. I couldn’t walk or stand up. I had to crawl on my hands and knees 10 blocks to my apartment. My back had just given out on me. Since then, five years ago, I’ve thrown my back out six times,” she said.

And every time the pain returns it takes at least four to five months to settle down again. “Most recently, I threw it out this past November and I’m still dealing with it five months later,” she said.

And “dealing with it” usually, means taking pain killers. “The previous times I took a lot of Aleve and just dealt with it by laying on my stomach and standing as much as possible. I complained a lot this time around and was given two in-office epidurals and oral medication, which I’m still taking.”

Lindsay said physiotherapy and acupuncture have also worked well. “I go to a physio once a week. My physiotherapist Maureen Ryan is great, she’s been wonderful. Interestingly, exercising helps as well — just getting the blood flowing — brisk walking has been good. If I just lay around, it gets worse,” she said. In Lindsay’s case exercise is key to her overcoming her back pain. “I was diagnosed with the herniated S1, L5 disk and they (her doctor and physiotherapist) said that I’m too young to be having these issues so I better start working on my back health now — especially because if I don’t pay attention to it now, it’ll become a surgery issue.

“They told me that it’s all about core strengthening and flexibility. Those things will have to become a priority for the rest of my life. If I take one positive thing from this — it’s that I now know how important exercising properly, having a strong core and being flexible are.”

But simply knowing is not enough. Lindsay has to be conscious of how she stands, sits, walks — every move she makes, every day. “It’s sometimes frustrating because I have to think about it everyday,” she said. And with weekly physiotherapy, acupuncture, doctor’s visits and diagnostic tests, the ordeal is also expensive. Lindsay is banking that putting the effort in now will pay off in a pain free back for her future.

“I’m scared because if I have had this pain when I’m 30, what is going to happen to me when I’m 40 and 50? What about having kids — will I be able to pick them up? I’m afraid of the consequences that I know will happen if I don’t make some changes in my life like working out, core strength, et cetera,” she said. “I know people who have had operations and are still dealing with pain months/years later. I just want to avoid that step.

“These days, I get by. I’m not pain free but I’m coping. Some days are better than others. What I do today will determine how I feel tomorrow so sitting at my desk all day and then not going to the gym to do what the physiotherapist told me to do, is probably not a good idea,” she said.