The Lost Decade

A memoir of pain, resilience, and recovery

The Lost Decade

For nearly ten years, chronic back pain shaped the limits of my life. This is the story of how I stopped searching for a miracle cure and slowly rebuilt trust in my body.

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A MEMOIR THE
LOST
DECADE Chronic pain, the long search, and the road back Francisco B. Sousa

The book

Recovery was not one dramatic breakthrough.

It was a gradual process of learning, experimenting, failing, adapting, and returning to life one step at a time.

The Lost Decade is not a medical manual. It is an honest account of injury, surgery, relapse, fear, confusion, and the long path back to movement, strength, and confidence.

10

My story

Years spent searching for an answer.

A disc herniation in 2015 led to surgery, a brief recovery, and then a relapse that changed the course of my life. What followed was a long search through treatments, theories, specialists, setbacks, and small victories.

The turning point came when I stopped treating my body as something fragile and began rebuilding capacity through graded exposure, training, movement, better sleep, and a different relationship with pain.

Recovery timeline

The long search, in seven chapters.

2015

The first injury

A severe L5–S1 disc herniation during strength training.

2016

Surgery

Partial laminectomy and discectomy, followed by rehabilitation.

2017

Relapse

A skiing accident brought the pain and fear roaring back.

2019–2021

The search continues

More specialists, more theories, and no lasting answer.

2021

A new framework

Learning about spinal resilience, capacity, and graded exposure.

2023

The turning point

Consistent movement, progressive training, and rebuilding trust.

2025–2026

Returning to life

Swimming, kayaking, lifting, travelling, and writing this book.

What helped me

No miracle cure. A collection of things that added up.

01

Graded exposure

Returning to feared movements gradually instead of avoiding them forever.

02

Strength and capacity

Building a body that felt capable rather than permanently vulnerable.

03

Understanding pain

Learning that pain can be real without always meaning fresh damage.

04

Sleep and recovery

Taking rest, stress, and nervous-system regulation seriously.

05

Consistency

Repeating manageable actions long enough for confidence to return.

06

A change in mindset

Shifting from protection and fear toward curiosity and participation.

“Recovery did not arrive as a revelation. It arrived as evidence.”

The Lost Decade

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Contact

Media, podcasts, and reader messages.

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