Friends often ask me if I miss my job. Of course I miss my job for many reasons. Yes. On the other hand, …absolutely not! Let me explain.

I miss the structure of having a full-time job. I worked at my previous employer for nine years. I was a graphics manager and part of a solid team of associates. I created laptop and slide presentations as well as brochures, charts, graphics and other marketing materials. I created my projects on a Macintosh G4, a HP Windows PC and a laptop.

The company was a well-respected financial firm and my computer graphics duties were the kind of work I built a career on. The salary and benefits were very competitive, and I excelled. Yes, I miss my job.

But when I think about how I worked: my cubicle, the office space and bad ergonomic set-up, I am glad not to be there anymore. My first seven years of employment at the firm were virtually pain-free. The desktops were all at the same height, the keyboard was level and I could get up and stretch every hour or so.

But in 2002 everything changed. My assistant graphics manager was laid off due to cutbacks and our group was relocated to another floor to save floor space.

My new cubicle footprint was larger, but the desktop counters were unequal heights. The credenzas and file cabinets were mounted in such a way, that it made sitting and working awkward and painful.

The counter space where I placed the keyboard was angled and at an uncomfortable height. Typing and using the mouse was a strain. I raised my chair and hunched forward to work on the Mac. I lowered my seat, leaned right and raised my arm up to work on the PC.

In a few months I began to experience stronger sciatic pain, carpal tunnel pain and neck pain. I hoped to get an office with a real desk, but with all the recent employee cutbacks, I was lucky just to keep my job.

My supervisor let me purchase an under the counter mounted keyboard tray, which alleviated my wrist pain somewhat. I brought in a lumbar support and took stretch breaks whenever possible.

But my bad ergonomics still caused pain. The workload rose strongly. Deadlines had to be met, and I spent many hours sitting, hunching, typing and working in awkward positions.

My low back pain and sciatica got worse. Sitting seemed so benign to me. I did not understand that prolonged sitting with bad ergonomics could contribute the chronic back pain.

Dr. Andrew Hecht, co-chief of spinal surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine said recently, “Sitting unrelentingly behind a desk for hours and hours on end will probably lead to your back stiffening up and having some degree of tightness, stiffness or pain.

Dr. Hecht said further, “this can easily be avoided by taking breaks each hour. Being active is very important, even at the workplace to alleviate those symptoms even before they come in.”

I asked Dr. Kim, pain management specialist and acupuncturist, if prolonged sitting may have contributed to my bad back problems. “Absolutely. Sitting forward promotes the most pressure on your disks. Your body starts to get muscle memory, you begin to stoop and get poor posture even when you’re walking.”

Dr. Kim and I spoke about the importance of proper ergonomics. In my 15+ years of employment, I cannot remember ever learning about ergonomics and how to prevent injuries at the office.

It got to a point where I took any moment I could to stand, stretch and get away from my desk. On my lunch hour I submitted to chiropractic adjustments, massage and acupuncture to find relief.

My demeanor worsened. I performed my tasks, but I was morose, depressed and upset. My associates noticed my personality change. Irritable.

I was in chronic pain and there was nothing I could do. What could I say? I was stuck in a cubicle and tried to stick it out, hoping the pain would subside. I thought about quitting my job. That’s how bad the pain was.

The defining moment came soon enough. I was moving to another apartment in October 2004 and engaged myself every evening in packing and lifting boxes. One evening I lifted a heavy box without proper form and felt a pop and burn in my lumbar.

I rested in bed with ice and took Advil. But the burn in my lower back continued for several days and became a constant and growing sciatic pain. Sitting and working became even more agonizing. Lumbar MRI’s revealed that herniated disks were likely impinging the sciatic nerve. Conservative treatments I tried like steroid shots and physical therapy might solve the problem in time.

I was called for jury duty and found it easier because I could stand, sit and stretch as needed. But after I returned to work, the pain was too strong to sit comfortably.

Sciatic pain stabbed me from my low back to my big toe. I submitted to back surgery: a minimally invasive discektomy at L5-S1. The surgeon was optimistic he could end my suffering.

Months passed as I waited to feel better. The pain did not subside. I asked my employer if I could work at sitting and standing stations. But I was told that was not an option.

Dr. Kim said studies show that firms who allow employees to do their work at sitting and standing stations decrease the incidence of back pain compared to companies that do not. Dr. Kim advocates taking breaks from sitting every hour, sitting in ergonomically designed chairs and using a footstool to counter the effects of long-term sitting.

Dr. Joseph Weisberg, P.T., Ph.D., goes further. He wrote that “the chair is the seat of all evil” and “chairs are hazardous to your musculoskeletal health” in his book, “3 Minutes to a Pain-Free Life”

In his book, Dr. Weisberg says that “there are no good chairs…right angled chairs are bad for the body” because our “s” spine shape turns into a “c” shape. Sitting causes the loss of lumbar lordosis, unequal pressures on the vertebrae and disks occur, and the weakening of the back.

“Even though it may take years for the damage or arthritic changes to produce symptoms, the continual microtraumatic irritation and cumulative destruction will eventually exact a price.”

Many doctors I have spoken with say we suffer chronic back pain because we evolved to walking erect, on our two feet. Dr. Weisberg writes that although gravity does put compression on our spines, our disks recover with rest. Sitting is to blame.

Dr. Weisberg notes that orthopedic studies show that only 9 percent of Indian jungle dwellers were found to have degenerative lumbar disks…as opposed to 35 percent of European personnel. And the Indians had almost a zero incidence of back pain.

He writes, our “sitting culture” since the mid-19th century has had drastic and profound changes in our lifestyle. “Whether straight or slumping, sitting in chairs puts 30 percent increase pressure on the spine that standing.”

In his book, Dr. Weisberg demonstrates a 3-minute maintenance method to counteract and “protect the muscles that are most at risk from prolonged sitting.”

I perform these exercises almost every day: the bow, pirformis stretch, arch, squat, upper body stretch, lizard – along with the strength-building exercises my PT, Jason instructed me to do. My back does feel better afterward.

On the other end of the spectrum is Dr. John Sarno, author of “Healing Back Pain” The “The Mindbody Prescription.” He has a radical approach. Dr. Sarno’s approach is “by identifying stress and other psychological factors” that most back pain can be cured using his latest research in TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome).

As a fan of Howard Stern, I remember Dr. Sarno’s name being touted and praised on an almost daily basis. To quote Mr. Stern from the back of one of Dr. Sarno’s books- “My life was filled with excruciating back and shoulder pain until I applied Dr. Sarno’s principles, and in a matter of weeks my back pain disappeared. I never suffered a single symptom again..i owe Dr. Sarno my life.”

I decided to read Dr. Sarno’s books. I watched his videos and tried his method to the best I could. It did not seem to help me at all. That does not mean it cannot help some people suffering from back pain due to stress and trauma. I understand the validity of his method.

I mention Dr. Sarno in this blog, because in his book, “Healing Back Pain,” he writes that people are conditioned to associate sitting with back pain through programming like Pavlov’s dog was trained to salivate when he heard the bell ring.

“…this is such a benign activity (sitting), one is mystified by the fact that it initiates pain….the brain makes the association between sitting and the presence of pain, and that person is now programmed to expect pain with sitting.”

“the pain occurs because of its subconscious association with sitting…not because sitting is bad for the back.” I understand his theory, but I still believe it was a structural abnormality, not my mind causing the chronic pain. I moved on to try and learn more about my type of pain.

I sought out drugs, therapies and researched back pain and nerve pain online and in medical books. I hoped to resume my duties at the firm, but I was not able to return in time. My position at the firm was “terminated.” I lost my job and missed it in many ways: the people, the projects, the structure that comes with a full-time job.

But when I remember sitting at that workstation, working in awkward positions and enduring constant sciatic and low back pain…I do not miss the job as much.

One day I will have another job, and will be more careful when it comes to practicing proper ergonomics.

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