Jane TaylorI experienced my first severe back pain when I was 19 years old and in college. It took a whole year to try to fix it... I finally went to Duke Hospital for a spinal fusion of the L5-S1. The good news is that the fusion worked. It relieved my pain, ad after recuperating for about five months, I went back to college. As time went on, I learned to keep my weight down and to exercise consistently to keep my back happy. Decades later, I experienced a muscle spasm in my back that didn't release for months. Oh, no... here we go again! This time, there was no surgical means of correction. So, I've explored a bunch of alternatives, and a combination of treatments are keeping me active. I've discovered that I understand people in pain in a way that I never did before. A person who hasn't experienced pain cannot truly empathize. I graduated from Duke University, and as a lifelong learner I received a Master's Degree from Carolina Evangelical Divinity School. Read More Read Less