From the earliest moments of his life, Joe was an extremely active boy. He would attempt climb up on to everything he could, often falling off: furniture, vehicles, rocks, trees, etc. When he began school, he was constantly involved in every sport available to him: football, baseball, basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and more. Joe particularly like the rougher sports, like football; the rougher the sport the more Joe enjoyed it.
Joe was raised a practicing Catholic. Catholic church services (mass), includes periods of kneeling down. Joe’s earliest memories of kneeling during mass are that of having low back pain. Kneeling put his lumbar spine in a slight extended, increased lordotic, position. Joe’s back felt much better if he would move his butt back until it contacted the seat behind him, putting him in a semi seated-kneeling position. In this position his lumbar spine was in slight flexion, and his back did not hurt. However, Joe’s parents felt that assuming such a position was disrespectful, and they would regularly gently reminded him to straighten out.
In high school, Joe excelled in football, basketball, and track. In track he did it all, competing in all the events of the decathlon. In college, Joe played basketball and ran on the track team. But during his college sophomore year he began to experience chronic lower back pain. Eventually he saw a chiropractor for his chronic low back pain complaints. The chiropractic examination included upright lumbar spine radiographs. The initial working diagnosis was:
Spondylolysis with spondylolisthesis (grade II, a 50% forward slippage down the sacral base) resulting in moderate L5-S1 disc degeneration (spondylosis) and paravertebral muscle spasm. There was no radiculopathy or myelopathy….