My poor, poor back

I went to a back specialist in San Antonio yesterday to see if there is anything major wrong.

While I was waiting for the doc to show up in my examining room, I was reading through a binder that explained lots of different back issues and ways to fix them.  These were surgical ways and it showed drawings of:

• pieces of vertebrae that had to be removed so that a nerve was not being pinched
• metal plates attached to two vertebrae with screws going into the vertebrae
• using bone shavings to fuse vertebrae together
• taking a disc out and replacing it with pieces of bone

There were more, but this was enough to haunt me for the rest of my life!  I was thinking that when I got a hairline fracture in my hand, it hurt like hell.  So what would one of these procedures feel like?  This was more than enough motivation to take better care of my back!

Anyways, after looking at x-rays, it turns out that my lowest disc (L5) is narrower compared to my other disks and that this is most likely the cause of my problems.  He said that this would be normal as I get older, but from the history I described to him, it sounds like it started much earlier for me.  Damn you marching band!!!!!

He said that we could fuse it, but over time L4 would get compressed and then that one would need to get fused and so on and so on.  Not much help.  Aside from fusing there is not much medical help that can be provided.  So he perscribed me to take up pilates to stregnthen my core which should help keep my back in better shape.  Anyone got any yoga pants I can borrow…