An avid soccer player and runner, Chantal Hadall considered herself fit and healthy person who sometimes suffered back pain. But that pain became more than a physical condition for her after she gave birth to daughter Jamie in August. Chantal first started suffering with acute back aches seven years ago when she was in her early 30s.

“I couldn’t pinpoint when the pain occurred. It didn’t seem to be aggravated by heavy lifting or sleeping awkwardly,” she said. “At first it would only last a day or so — I could take an over the counter pain killer or relaxant, and it would go away the next day.”

Content that the pain had subsided, this was how Chantal treated her back problems until last year.

“I had a baby in August and the four months following her birth were very painful. The pain was coming more frequently and lasting longer periods, until just before Christmas, I was in constant pain. I had to think about every movement I made,” she said. She said her lower back had a constant dull ache but a turn in the wrong direction rendered her almost helpless. “I would get a sharp, piercing pain which felt like I was being pinched in the lower back, usually the left hand side, with pliers or poked with a hot fireplace poker. It was severe and sharp, and often caused me to have to lean or grab onto something or someone to keep my balance.”

Her reliable Advil painkiller and Robaxacet muscle relaxant offered no relief. “After the baby, nothing worked. I tried icing and sleeping with a heating pad — nothing could ease the pain, and it continued to get worse.”

And the pain became more than physical as Chantal began to have real concern that she might be endangering her baby daughter’s life. “I lived in fear that I would get one of the stabbing pains while I was picking up my baby and this would cause me to drop her. I was petrified of dropping the baby and that I would be destined to live with this kind of pain for the rest of my life,” she said. Chantal said at its peak, the back pain was a big interruption to her life.

“I could barely lift my new baby, I couldn’t play soccer anymore and I couldn’t run — the only exercise I could do, albeit painfully and awkwardly, was walking.

“I had visions that I would barely be able to walk by the time I was 50, let alone live the active lifestyle that I was used to,” she said. Her worries were compounded by the diagnosis from her doctor that the pains were a result of ‘old age’.

“Refusing to believe at 37 that I would have to live with this pain for the rest of my life, and at the recommendation of a friend, I went to a chiropractor,” she said. “After taking X-rays, he could see that I had some degeneration of my disc, caused by wear and tear and the slight curvature (scoliosis) of my spine — this was also causing some inflammation in the area.

“I started a series of adjustments and he recommended core-building exercises. After a few months of little relief, I consulted a sport doctor. He shared the general consensus with my chiropractor, that I had a lot of degeneration, for someone my age, in two of my discs.”

Chantal said he prescribed many anti-inflammatory drugs, which gave her instant, but very short term, relief. “I also had a few physio sessions. After four months of chiropractic treatment, X-rays show that my spine looks a little better, and there is no more degeneration of the disc.

“To this day, I’m not sure if the relief was due to the anti-inflammatory medications, the physio or the chiropractic adjustments or a combination,” she said.

Chantal also had one acupuncture session with her sports doctor but said she thinks because the medications were working no follow-up sessions were suggested. Today Chantal’s back still hurts her but she is able to manage it. “I’m not pain free, but the achiness is not constant and the sharp pains are less frequent and much, much less severe. When I feel that the pain is getting a bit worse, I can take an anti-inflammatory which seems to provide relief. I’m still not back to playing soccer, but can walk comfortably now and pick up my baby without any trouble. I’m still careful about how I pick anything up; I remember to use my knees!”