• AGE: 58 
• MARITAL STATUS M (married) 
• OCCUPATION: Postmaster
• c/o sever low back pain 
• 1/52 radiating to left leg 
• accompanied by paraesthesia 
• unrelieved by paracetamol
• may have started after gardening

DOCTOR: Ah good morning. Mr Hudson. I see from your card that you've just moved in to the area and perhaps you could tell me a little about your previous health as I won't get your records for another month, month or two. And then we can deal with your present problem.
PATIENT: Well. I've actually, I've always been very fit up till now but ...
DOCTOR: Have you ever been in hospital?
PATIENT: Oh, only when I was a child. I had an appendicitis when I was eight.
DOCTOR: Aha. and what's your job, what do you do?
PATIENT: Well, I'm a ... I work for the post office. I'm a postmaster.
DOCTOR: And I see that you're ...what? 58 now, and have you ... ?
PATIENT: Yes.
DOCTOR: Have you always been with the post office?
PATIENT: Yes, well apart from my time in the army you know ...
DOCTOR: I see. And you're married. Any family?
PATIENT: Yes, two girls and a boy.
DOCTOR: Fine. That's fine. Now can you tell me what seems to be the problem today?
PATIENT: Well, it's this terrible pain. I've got this terrible pain in my back. I've had it for more than a week now and it's ...
DOCTOR: I see, and can you show me exactly where it is?
PATIENT: It's down here, here.
DOCTOR: And does it go anywhere else?
PATIENT: Yes, it goes down my left leg. And I feel pins and needles in my foot.
DOCTOR: I see, and is it there all the time?
PATIENT: Yes, yes it is. It's keeping me awake, awake at night and I can't get out into the garden. I've been taking aspirins but the pain, it just comes back again.
DOCTOR: And was there anything that started it off?
PATIENT: Well, yes, yes. I've been trying to sort out the garden at my new house and I don't know, I may have been overdoing things a bit.