#047 - Tim Doyle - A Day In My Life With Chronic Back Pain & How I Fully Healed Without Surgery

From debilitating chronic back pain to complete healing without surgery, I take you hour by hour through my toughest days and reveal how I transformed my relationship with pain. Learn why your mind is as crucial as your body in the healing process and discover how pain can lead to personal growth. Whether you're struggling with pain or seeking hope, this story proves that healing is not just possible—it’s transformative.

If you have been dealing with chronic back pain and have any interest in my coaching program, The Orrow Method, I'd love to talk about how we can get you on the path to healing. 

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Transcript

What’s up outworkers. From debilitating chronic back pain to complete healing without surgery, I take you hour by hour through my toughest days and reveal how I transformed my relationship with pain. Learn why your mind is as crucial as your body in the healing process and discover how pain can lead to personal growth. Whether you're struggling with pain or seeking hope, this story proves that healing is not just possible—it’s transformative.

A few years back, I had a really bad back injury. Two badly herniated discs in my lumbar spine at L4, L5 and L5S1. I made an entire mini series on this experience called Back on Top. And I'm really proud to say that me sharing my entire experience and my entire story of fully healing from herniated discs without surgery.

I'm glad that story has been able to help a lot of people also find healing or at the very least just give them hope that they can find healing and highly recommend watching that mini series. If you want a firsthand account of a very in depth experience of dealing with herniated discs. And I think the one thing that got left out of that series because I cover everything in that.

The mental, the emotional, the physical, the spiritual. I cover my entire experience, but I think the thing that gets left out is actually the most micro minute part of that experience, which is just what a day in the life would look like. So I want to share what a routine day in my life would look like with debilitating chronic back pain and

just taking it hour by hour. And I posted about this on my Instagram a little while back. So if you want to go over to my Instagram while you're listening or watching this or afterwards, just so you can read through it and make note of it. But I just want to share what a regular routine day would look like when I was dealing with just so much chronic back pain.

Tim Doyle (02:07.342)

So I'm just going to read out exactly how my day would look like. 8 a.m. Wake up, get out of bed as carefully as I possibly can. As my feet hit the ground, a nerve tingling feeling shoots up my left leg. 8.05 a.m. Limp to the bathroom and stress that something will feel off. I learned early on that my affected spinal nerves controlled my bowel and bladder movements and it's on my mind every time I go to the bathroom.

815am. Take a shower. Have the delusional hope that the hot water hitting my back will be what heals my pain. 845am. Get dressed. Put on shorts with my legs fully extended, because it's challenging to bend my legs. Never put on socks because it hurts too much to be in a bent over position. 850am. Put on my back brace. 9am. Go to the kitchen to 9am.

Go to the kitchen to cook my breakfast. Make sure to have one of my family members leave out a pan and cooking spray so I don't have to bend over and struggle to get these items where they usually are. This becomes so routine that I don't even have to ask anyone to do it. 930 a.m. Eat breakfast standing up since it hurts too much to sit down. 940 a.m. Go lie down and ice my back for 20 minutes. Directions I'm given from my doctors to ice 20 minutes for every single hour that I'm up.

10am finish icing and go back to my room for class. Take my class standing up with my camera on or email my professor and say my camera will be off because I will be taking class from my bed. 11am finish class ice my back for 20 minutes. 1130am go lie down in bed do some reading for class research back pain or watch chiropractor videos. The cracking sounds in the videos are oddly satisfying. 12pm

Take another class standing up or in bed. 1250pm. Stress about going to the bathroom. 1pm. Ice my back for 20 minutes. 130pm. Eat lunch standing up. 145pm. Go lie down on the floor and watch some TV so I don't have to continue being in my bed. Can't sit on the couch. Hurts too much to sit down. 2pm. Ice my back for 20 minutes. 230pm. Stress about going to the bathroom.

Tim Doyle (04:34.95)

3pm, ice my back for 20 minutes. 4pm, put on my shoes while I fight through the discomfort. 405pm, get into my car very carefully and drive 20 minutes to go do spinal decompression. Bear the pain and discomfort while I'm driving. 425pm, get out of my car very carefully. It feels extra hard to walk as my body is achy from sitting in my car. 430pm.

Do spinal decompression for 20 minutes. Feels good in the moment. But by the time I'm in the elevator and leaving the building, the relief is gone and the pain is back. 5pm. Get back into my car very carefully. Sit there for a few moments. Hopeless, depleted, broken. Speak to myself out loud. There's a reason why you're going through this. Not knowing what that reason is, but having faith that there must be a greater purpose for this.

505 p.m. Drive 20 minutes back home. Bear the pain and discomfort while I'm 525 p.m. Get out of my car very carefully. It feels extra hard to walk as my body is achy from sitting in my car. Really demoralizing since I just finished therapy work that is supposed to make me feel better. 530 p.m. My parents asked me how spinal decompression went. I lightfully say, fine.

5 45 p.m. Stress about going to the bathroom. 6 p.m. Ice my back for 20 minutes. 6 30 p.m. Eat dinner standing up. 6 45 p.m. Talk with my parents about how nothing is working and how none of the pain has gotten better. Try to end on a slightly hopeful note but it feels forced. 7 p.m. Ice my back for 20 minutes. 7 30 p.m.

Play Tetris on my computer to get... 7.30pm Play Tetris on my computer to get some form of physical and competitive stimulation. I got really good at Tetris. 8pm Ice my back for 20 minutes and just continue to lie on the ground. 8.30pm Go back to my bed. Maybe play some more Tetris or watch a workout video and reminisce about what I used to be able to do. 9.30pm

Tim Doyle (07:00.896)

I used one more 9 30 PM. I used one more time for the day. 11 PM. Go to bed and sleep on my side since that is the least painful position to be in. Do it all again the next day.

Tim Doyle (07:20.878)

So some thoughts that come to mind. So some thoughts that come to mind when I read through that. First, just an extreme amount of pride in myself, because I feel like enough time has elapsed. Now, when I was going through that, that was end of 2020 into start of 2021. I feel like enough time has elapsed.

for me, it kind of feels like, man, like I actually went through that, like, so just a deep amount of pride and writing that out and speaking it out for the pain that I was able to endure and what I was able to go through and overcome. And the second thought that comes to mind, and you'd probably be shocked to think or hear this, but to me,

I could have written so much more. I could have given so much more minute detail of what the days would look like. And what a lot of those minute details are about is that it wasn't necessarily all the actions that I was doing throughout the day.

but it was just the 24 seven constant thoughts in my head. Thinking about the pain, thinking about my body, thinking about the entire experience. That is what would last throughout the entire day. And I won't get too much into the weeds here on what helped me heal.

But that was a large component of the work that allowed me to fully heal was.

Tim Doyle (09:19.2)

Working not just on my body but more so working on my mind and rewiring my mind not to be so heavily focused on my pain and Identifying with the pain and thinking I'm fragile and broken

Tim Doyle (09:48.684)

because that's very common to do.

anybody who has dealt with any type of injury, but especially when it comes to disc problems, herniated discs, bulging discs, a lot of what we're told and a lot of what we internalize is that don't do this, don't sit this way, don't bend over, don't pick that up, that we just get into this mental hole and this mental pretzel.

that it just completely takes over our entire lives. And another reason, the main reason why I created an episode for this and sharing this, it's not so I can, you know, talk about like, look at how hard I had it. Look at what I overcame. It's not to tout myself or make myself look strong. I mean, I didn't talk about any of this stuff

with my back and this entire injury publicly for

Tim Doyle (11:02.734)

three, three and half years after everything that had happened.

and

Tim Doyle (11:13.974)

until two, two and a half years after everything that happened. And the main reason why that was is that I needed to be able to process everything for myself first. I needed to understand the entire experience for myself while also being able to continue my own healing process before I felt like I could be in a position to share my story and allow it to help others. Because I felt like

If I don't fully even understand this stuff first, how am I going to share this with others and have it be as impactful for them as it can be? So me sharing this is not to make myself look good, but it's, it's to help others. Because what I'll say is everything that I just read out there, I don't deal with any of that stuff anymore. I am fully healed, no surgery.

no physical treatments. One thing I will say is that it was a lot of mind body work. And I coach a lot of people through this now with herniated and bulging disc problems, how they can fully heal and be their own healer rather than using conventional treatments, especially people who I feel like they've been failed by conventional treatments because I was the same way. Physical therapy didn't help me spinal decompression didn't help me. quarterzone shots didn't help me.

I was so close to getting surgery, so close, but didn't go through with it.

but it was all about mental rewiring work and understanding how chronic pain and especially when it comes to disc problems, it's not just a physical issue. It's a relationship between your mind and your body and the mind body connection and how your mind can play into chronic pain.

Tim Doyle (13:14.286)

So that is why I'm sharing all this. So if you're a person who is going through disc problems, or you know of somebody who's going through disc problems, and you are hopeless, and you probably are hopeless. And I know that and I'm saying that because guess what, I was a hopeless person. I was so hopeless. I was like, this is my life. I am just a broken, fragile person now, just months on end of pain. That entire day that I shared with you, that was just

every single day for months on end 24 7 pain living in fear

just trying to get through the day. Every day just trying to get through the day. So that's why I'm sharing this. Because who knows maybe your day looks worse than mine. Maybe your day looks better than mine. But take that day take that day that I shared with you of what my life looked like. And understand that the final plot point on that day

was ultimately I'm fully healed. No more pain. This doesn't control me anymore.

and take that as confirmation.

Tim Doyle (14:38.36)

that you can have that too, if you're dealing with stuff like this. But even if you're not dealing with this problems, even if you're just dealing with any type of struggle or problem within your life, understand that you can be okay with not knowing

when relief or healing will come, how it will come. But just understand that it'll it'll come some way. Because I was the same way. was like, I don't know when and I said it there. When I would finish up spinal decompression, get back into my car in so much pain. Through the pain. I would not confidently but I would just say out loud

There's gotta be a reason for this. There has to be just blind faith. There's gotta be a reason. And as I, and as I've continued my healing process, and as I like, as I've, and as I've continued to progress past this and as my relationship with pain has continued to evolve,

I have found a lot of reasons for why this has happened. I have found those reasons and I've been given those reasons.

And as I've said, my relationship with pain, has evolved a lot. It started, like I said, end of 2020 where started feeling pain.

Tim Doyle (16:19.854)

Then it got really bad to the point of just debilitating pain that controlled my entire life. To the point of I'm going to be living with this pain for the rest of my life. To, I'm starting to get a little bit better here. To, wow, I am really starting to heal. To, wow, this pain is a gift. This pain was a gift in my life.

to now that pain helping me in other areas of my life and just becoming a much more transformed, evolved and authentic person and true to who I am.

And now my relationship with pain has evolved even more into, right, now I'm going to help people with that same cycle. I'm going to help people have that same type of trajectory and journey with pain. Because that's where this type of work.

Tim Doyle (17:22.338)

because that's what this type of work is about. If you're dealing with a herniated or bulging disc problem and you're in a lot of pain right now, you and I are not different. We are just at different points in the journey.

Healing does not exist without pain. You need pain to heal. Pain is a stepping stone to healing. It's not the antithesis. So as hard as it may seem right now to believe it, your pain is a gift.

your pain will be one of the biggest benefits that is entered into your life.

Tim Doyle (18:08.812)

And if you think I'm crazy for saying that, if you don't believe me, please reach out to me because I would love to talk with you and learn more about your experience.

and explain to you why and how more so the how how this can be such a gift by the work that you can do the work that helped me I hope a lot of other people with the now in terms of understanding the mind body connection and how that plays into chronic pain and how you can fully heal

because that's one of the biggest things. Maybe you think, I'm going to try to manage this pain the best as I can know you can be in a place where this pain, feeling the pain, feeling the chronic, just debilitating pain, you don't, you don't have to feel it anymore. You won't feel it anymore. And you may ask me, well, how bad were your herniations or how bad were you? Maybe I'm way worse with all the people that I've talked to.

I think there's maybe one person who was worse than me in terms of an MRI they were given or a diagnosis they were given.

One doctor that I met with said these are some of the worst herniations I've seen in my entire career and the guy had been practicing for over 20 years. Another doctor told me you've done some serious damage here to your body. So it's not just like I had a little disc bulge or a little problem like I was told by doctors, this is really, really, really bad. But guess what? Now I'm fully healed.

Tim Doyle (19:54.636)

no pain, no lingering problems, no fear, no believing that I'm broken, the exact opposite, stronger than ever.

more internally powerful than ever. But that's what you need to get those things. You don't become internally powerful and stronger in your most authentic, truest self by just getting those things. It's actually the exact opposite. If you want to be really strong, guess where strength comes from. Strength comes from weakness.

Strength comes from pain.

Tim Doyle (20:42.38)

whether you're going through disc problems or just going through something really hard in your life, or if you're just interested in stories like this health stories, healing stories, seeing the evolution of people. I hope you have found this episode interesting or insightful in any way. Please, if you or if you know anyone who's dealing with this problems, please reach out to me. Would love to help in any way that I can, whether if it's

Just asking questions, getting on a call with me or working with me on a one on one basis with my client coaching program. I know how tough and hopeless and isolating this can be. That's the biggest word also isolating. I know how isolating and lonely this can be, especially when you're around other people. It's not just when you're physically alone, but it's, it feels much more isolating and alone when you're around other people.

because you just feel so different. You feel so broken. mean, I would literally be in a group of people and I would just be jealous of people who were like sitting down. I would see somebody bend over or I would see somebody just sitting down. Something so basic. I would be so jealous and I would think to myself, wow, like that guy's spine must look pretty good.

Tim Doyle (22:05.976)

So I know how tough that can be. And I know how isolating it can be because I was there. So if you need somebody to talk to, if you want to work with me and heal your pain.

And I'm not going to be the one who does it. You're going to be the one. That's why it's so powerful. You can be your own healer with this type of work.

Tim Doyle (22:29.494)

understanding how your mind plays into your pain and it's about the mind and the body working together and you can heal your pain. You don't need anybody else to do it. I'd love to guide you. I'd love to give you tools to help you and reach out to me. DM me on Instagram, Tim at DM me on Instagram at Tim dot Doyle. That's D O Y and then a one instead of an L and then E.

keep out working. Whether you're dealing with something, whether you're growing, whatever it is, just keep out working. Stay after it. Stay after what you're doing. Be authentic. Be true to who you are. And I'll see you in the next episode.