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My Oswestry Disability Index Scores: (below) [ 'One-Year' Oswestry Score(11-28-03) | Pre-surgical Oswestry Score(2-11-04)|
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT! Well, it's been two years since I injured my lower back in a bike race up my favorite training hill to Henry Coe State Park (see photo - I'm the 2nd climber). I would have never dreamed that I would 'still' be suffering from sciatica and some back pain! Despite my recent microdiscectomy of 2/12/04, I'm still unable to ride a bike, hike, play golf, or do much of anything without 'severely' paying for it. I have great difficulty with lifting, sitting, bending repetitively, prolonged walking (especially hills) or doing anything remotely physical. At 9 months status-post microdiscectomy, I'm able to work about 40 hours a week but can't do anything heavy or even remotely physical. I've had to modify my patient treatment in order to accommodate my disability. I can no longer treat some of the very heavy patients but have been able to do simple exercises. As a past 'State appointed', Qualified Medical Evaluator, I'm quite familiar with the three main 'Out Come Assessment Tools' commonly used for evaluating the disable spinal patient. The Roland Morris-24, SF-36, and the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire are the bread and butter, subjectively speaking, of all good disability evaluators. My Roland Morris results (here) confirm a moderate residual disability to the open labor market, where I scored 7 out of 24. The 'Oswestry Low back pain questionnaire' (here) also confirms a moderate to severe disability, where I scored a 42%. My 'Stanford Score' (here) is 4.38 as of 11-28-03 which is more than a moderate disability- things are getting worse and it looks like its time for a microdiscectomy. Feel free to browse to these pages to take the test your self! I have not chosen to give my self a 'permanent disability rating' yet for I do NOT believe I'm maximally medically improved as of yet for the following reasons: My sciatica started from a severe exacerbation on 12-28-02 . My 'Bottom' (worse level of pain), did not occur until April of 2003. This 'bottom' occurred from yet another severe exacerbation from a two hour hike in the mountains followed by a 30 minute exercise session. The links below will show you my actual Disability Assessment Scores on some of the most common assessment forms.
Roland-Morris | Stanford Score | Home | Top © Copyright 2002 – 2005 by Dr. Douglas M. Gillard DC - All rights reserved |
The Oswestry Disability Index is probably the best tool we have/use for accessing a patient's level of functional disability. The above links show you my past and present disabilities as graded by the Oswestry Disability Index. In my case, it's not a happy story.