Michael Finley

"Dealing with Back Pain"

Reprinted from his "What Ails You?" columns for Twin Cities Business Monthly

© 2003 by Michael Finley

A colleague, who has put on more weight over his 30-odd years of chair swiveling than he ought, gets this pain when he stands up. Not enough to make him howl, but enough that his facial features wrinkle into the middle like a milk scald.

You know the face. Chances are, you've felt the same way. All pain hurts but back pain is a category unto itself. You feel you're next to be culled from the herd. You feel weak, you feel sore, you feel old.

And this isn’t some major acute pathology, just the everyday chronic back pain that millions of men and women suffer. Yet it costs employers and insurers billions annually in treatment and time off. It strangles productivity, it delays projects, and it casts a pall over the office climate: "The old man's twinging, pass it on!"

I know nothing about backaches. To me, the lumbar region is up near Brainerd.

So I asked some experts what it is about the spine that makes it so touchy. I wanted to know, Was there some terrific metaphor, some image that would put it all into instant perspective? What I got was the exact opposite.

FOR THE COMPLETE ESSAY, CLICK WHERE IT SAYS "CLICK TO PAY"