Epilogue: Patient’s perspective

Abstract This chapter reviews the experience of Reggie Winston, a mechanical engineer with chronic low back pain. It begins with his divorce, followed by the onset of his back pain after a fall while backpacking. He gets temporary relief from epidural steroid injections, but soon progresses to a lumbar fusion. This provides partial relief, but after a hard plane landing he is in significant pain again. He is treated with Percocet, then Oxycontin, with an initial good response. He continues drinking alcohol and gradually escalates his dose. After a breakup with a girlfriend, he accidentally overdoses on opioids and alcohol. He enters alcohol and drug rehabilitation, followed by a pain rehabilitation program. He readily takes to the exercise focus, but finds addressing his chronic anger to be more challenging.