11/02/2026
LIANA’S PAIN RELIEF STORY
Liana messaged me a while ago to ask if I could help with her awful back pain and sciatic discomfort.
I’m close friends with her dad, and I previously helped him fully recover from his own sciatic pain. You can read about his story in a post dated 16th April 2024.
I’ve known Liana since she was a wee girl, so of course I was going to help ASAP! She’s obviously a lot younger than her dad so I was expecting a quick recovery!
She had tried all of the usual conventional treatments, and heard all of the usual blah. She did the exercises that she was told to do, but nothing helped. The pain killers she was taking barely touched it! 💊
She didn’t come sooner because she lives in Bathgate, and needs to consider work and childcare obligations. A 60 mile round trip for therapy definitely wasn’t going to make life easier!
I eventually got her in for an assessment and treatment and, as usual, I was feeling confident I could help.
Back pain is a bread and butter treatment for me, so experience tells me there’s a high probability her pain will be gone in four treatments or less!
I’m going to give the short version of this story, and as much as I want to tell you I fixed her after four treatments, I didn’t!
We managed to get a week or two without pain on a couple of occasions, but ultimately it returned, especially after sitting for hours at her desk!
This was frustrating for me, and disappointing for her. I had identified the problem and I could feel the dysfunction, but it was being stubborn!
At this time Liana was waiting for an orthopaedic appointment, and she eventually saw the consultant in August last year.
Her scan showed a herniated disc and a decision was made to add her to the waiting list for a microdiscectomy. This gave Liana time to drop some weight before the surgery!
She decided to eat better and walk regularly, and not only did she lose weight, but she reached her target in less than six months. As you can see from her transformation pic she’s looking great, but more importantly she’s feeling great!
The best thing of all is her back and leg pain has disappeared, and she has now been pain free for three months! In addition, she continues to do daily stretches that I gave her for prevention!
Of course I wanted to be the guy who fixed this for her, but she got there on her own. Sometimes I have the audacity to think I can fix everything, when actually I need to recognise that manual therapy isn’t always the only answer. The most important thing, is Liana no longer requires invasive surgery that comes with risk!
I’m not the diet and exercise police, and quite frankly, there’s already too many windbags dictating on how we should be living our lives on social media! The truth is, I see more gym goers with back problems than I do couch potatoes!
I know I’m carrying some extra luggage myself at the mo. I should really be taking a leaf out of Liana’s book. Maybe less wine and more trips on my bike is in order! 🚲
Of course not everyone who has an extra tyre around the middle has back pain however, for every pound of weight we put on, the spine experiences four additional pounds of compressive force!
This is something we should all probably remember in terms of looking after our back health, not to mention other areas of our general wellbeing!
Anyway, I wanted to share this as an inspiration for others who may be living everyday in pain or struggling with other health issues. If there’s a chance that one or more people reading this will be inspired to make changes that may eliminate their own suffering, then it’s definitely worth putting it out there!
Well done Liana, be proud! 😊 x