Question
I have been having back pain since I was 12 years old, I am 21 now and for years I have been in misery because the doctors tell me that what I have (spina bifida occulta) is ALWAYS benign and that a slightly deteriorating disc wouldn't cause that much pain. Over the years every doctor I have been to has been obviously skeptical, and I am writing you now in desperation because the doctor I have just seen was very judgemental, rude, name-calling, and actually made me cry right in the office. I am sorry for any unneeded details but I want to impress upon the reader that I am just at my wit's end and I can't take this from these people anymore. Over the years, I have tried physical therapy, a TENS unit, lidocaine patches, excercise, everything short of steroid injections, which I declined. At any rate, I want to know if these symptoms from my childhood might have anything to do with this : I was always getting UTI's, bladder infections, etc.  and had severe incontinence from the time I was six or seven. It was so bad that they did tests on my bladder, and found that it was normal. Also, I always had a problem with my legs falling asleep for no reason (even when I wasn't sedentary) and sometimes the "pins and needles" feeling would get so bad it was very painful and impossible to walk on - sometimes I still get this, every now and again.

If the conditions I have have absolutely no bearing on this, why is my back hurting all the time? One doctor said that my joints and back hurt all the time because perhaps I might have arthiritis, but this has never been verified. Thank you for reading and, hopefully, replying to this letter as my pain only gets worse and worse over the years, and I actually failed to graduate high school and have been unable to get my life back together and do things I want to do because my pain is often so disabling that it's a miracle just to have a good day anymore...Thank you again.

-Desperate for Help

Answer
Sarah,
It is obvious that you are suffering the effects of abnormal function in your body.  The doctors that you have seen thusfar have no idea how to help you because they are not trained to detect the cause of the problem, only to look at the effects and what other doctors have written about in their medical textbooks. This story is not uncommon in that doctors become so arrogant and almost "Godlike" that when they don't have an answer for you they try to turn it around on you, because they are perfect so it couldn't be them, it has to be you.
We have seen and continue to see the most difficult cases that there are because of our method of detecting and eventually correcting the cause of abnormal function in over 90% of patients at our office.
If you truly want to get well and are serious about your health and your life, then I would be happy to further discuss with you making arrangements to perform a complete and thorough consultation and examination to see if we can finally get to the bottom of this.
Our clinic is located centrally in St Louis, Missouri and you are also welcome to call our clinic at (314) 995-5719 to set up your first appointment, otherwise it would probably be best to e-mail me with any questions you may have.

Yours in Best Health,
Dr Robert Arnone