I was diagnosed with Spina Bifida Occulta at the age of 19 after a back injury. I was instructed to do exercises to help maintain muscle strength but after my children was born I let these slip. At the age of 37 I reinjured the back lifting and entered the most dreadul period of my life, three years of the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced. I was told to rest which I did however, the more I rested the worse I got. I could not sit. lie or stand for more than 10 minutes at a time. My marriage broke down and I was left with two children to raise. At this stage I could not lift anything nor push a supermarket trolley. I had lost 5 stones in weight because I was too ill to eat.

My orthopaedic specialist (a personal friend) advised me to swim. She said that she would not operate because I had pain over too wide an area. She also said that she had found that the more you interfere with the spine the more problems you develop. Therefore, I took her advise and it was very painful. I would swim 1/2 lap and then spend 1/2 hour under a hot shower massaging the spasms out of the back. Gradually I began to swim further until I was swimming a mile a day every day. Then I began to experience relief until I found I was virtually pain free. However, you must do it every day and when I re-entered the work force I often did not get time to swim. I have gradually deteriorated again. However, I have not returned to the days of excruciating agony, but I do experience constant pain from this condition and I have lost sensation in both legs and have problems with bowel and bladder which are increasing as I age. I am now 60.

Another thing I would like to say is that Naprosan (an anti-inflammatory ) causes hearing loss. So be very careful of this drug. I experienced a hearing loss of 30% which I believe is due to this medication. When I spoke to me G.P. regarding the fact that I had read on the Internet that hearing loss is one of the side effects of Naprosan, he denied this. However, a few minutes later he apologised and said that this is correct. He said that he was unaware of this side effect. He had looked the information up on his computer whilst he was speaking to me.

I believe that if you do exercise for this condition it helps immensely and I have attended swimming and done gym work to increase my muscle strength since 1987 and I know that it does help.