By Dr. Femi Ogunyemi

I saw a patient a few days ago with back pain radiating down her left leg. The pain was a tingling ache with flashes of “electricity”. Her initial treatment had produced some good results. However barely two weeks later the pain had returned and she was requesting a repeat.

I decided to dig a bit deeper into her occupation.

She was the PA to a corporate executive and her work involved a lot of sitting, standing and walking ( with high heels ) on polished marble floors.  After a few more questions, most of which she must have thought were insignificant, I leaned back and mumbled to myself ” need OT “.

“What’s OT?” She had heard me.

“Occupational therapy,” I said. “We need to make adjustments to your person, your daily tasks and your work environment.” She looked puzzled. “But the injection helped.” “Yes and no,” I said. “The injection gave relief indeed, but your work environment is aggravating the progress.”

What do Occupational Therapists do?

They work with people who have been injured on the job or who are trying to return to work. They task you on what is interfering with your ability to do what you want to do and when you want to do it. They focus on MEANINGFUL and PURPOSEFUL activities that are often limited by pain.

An OT intervention can be as simple as teaching people who have back problems to put their shoes on. This may involve adaptive equipment or assistive technology, or a simple solution such as a long shoehorn or elastic shoe laces! Some of the successes in occupational therapy rests in its common sense simplicity.

Some people have back pain when they brush their teeth. Opening the door under the sink and putting a foot on the ledge might relieve the pressure in the lower back. Most chairs are uncomfortable. A chair may need adaptation; whether its an office chair to work at a computer or a lounge chair to watch television at home.

Sometimes it is that pair of trendy flat shoes or designer slippers with no solid support causing your knee and low back pain. A lot of times people complain of pain when in bed. Often it turns out that they sleeping on their stomachs or their backs, or they are sleeping in positions unhelpful for them.

Some useful tips

Break down tasks and pace yourself. Figure out how to move things without carrying them. Store things at or close to where you need or use them. In choosing or using a car, look at how to get in and out of it and how low it is to the ground. It might be a fancy sports car but you won’t look sexy if you can’t get out of it! Overall you need to know what movements and positions cause you pain and then look at what you can do to stop them.

In the Office

You want to consider the height of your computer. The continuous bending and flexing of your neck to see the screen may affect your neck and back. Also do adjust your adjustable chairs. Take breaks when working long stretches at the computer.

Let your office ergonomics serve YOU, not the other way round. If something hurts, don’t do it. “No pain, no gain” is not for everyday things in life and office. Quality of life depends on a person’s ability to do the things he or she wants to do, when he or she wants to do them.

I read an article in the Vanguard a couple of years ago which stated that there was (then) probably about 15 occupational therapists in Nigeria. And the writer was concerned that some may have left for greener pastures abroad. When I was an Associate Professor at the Medical College of Georgia (now Georgia Regents

University) in the golf city of Augusta in the USA, I met a young Nigerian training to be an Occupational therapist. I did all I could to encourage him in his career path, and to return home. He has most likely finished his training now. Oh, how much we need him here…….