Should get an x ray too. You may have spondylolisthesis

I cleaned it up a bit for you (brighter, and inverted the image to match most normal MRIs). http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1524627725.png

Thanks Mike. The original viewer had the image inverted, I then inverted it in an attempt to make things easier to see. I like your cleaned up version much better than the original and my posted pict. I'll show this to the doc on Monday.

Comparing that image to my own, it looks like some disc loss (degeneration) on the disc at the end of the arrow and the one directly above.

Good luck! I've been dealing with this for 6 years now and it sucks.

Thanks. It is a bit depressing. I think we have a lot of company. Hopefully there is a path back to sustainable use of my back. Now that I'm not using my back waiting for the doc. appointment, it seems I need it for almost everything I need, want or like to do.

There seems to be two camps:
1 - PT and consistent excercizes with surgery as close to a last resort
2 - Some level of surgery right off the bat and also includes PT/etc.

There is disc replacement and disc removal surgery. As I understand these carry considerable risk and may not help that much. I'll bet the surgery has gotten better over the last 5 years or so.

Thanks everyone for the comments/etc.

Well?

WELL???!!!

My doctor wife wants to know the results, she's concerned about what was on that picture. It was either poor imaging, an artifact, or one of any number of nasty medical issues.

Don't make her wait to find out!

Not a doctor. Been living with three herniated discs for over a year since finding out that is what has been causing my back pain. My MRI looked similar to yours. In reality I have been living with it for over 10 years. If you're not a fan of surgery, core strengthening and stretching are the keys. For the pain in your butt, look up Piriformis release. There are stretches that will help. If you like the fast way out, microdiscetomy and be done with it. My understanding is that you need to be careful after having the procedure as you are more prone to re-injury. I spent about 1 month researching therapy vs surgery and opted for the therapy since I know I'm not smart enough to not lift something I shouldn't be lifting by myself.

Good luck.

Cabmando, thanks.
I'm hoping the PT and follow on exercises/etc. will get me to the point of strengthening things so I can ride again. I had one PT session and wasn't too impressed. I have one today and we'll see how it goes.

My PT sucked until I got a therapist willing to listen to me and what my problem was. I couldn't get an effective stretch due to the very literal pain in my ass. Two message therapy treatments and it was a whole different game. This is why I started doing research on stretches for the piriformis as well as low impact hamstring stretches. Give the PT some time and make sure you're giving the therapist some feedback. The same person who decided to use message therapy listened to me when I told her "You're not pressing me enough on the core exercises. I'll let you know if it's too much because my back will let me know" I know they are professionals but sometimes if they're being too conservative, you need to let them know.

Something else that's important with back pain, learn to bend properly. There was an exercise I did using a broom handle where you hold the handle at at your head and tailbone along your spine. You then bend forward making sure you don't arch your back when bending. You'll find that you're bending at the knee when keeping your back in line. Slumping forward when you bend puts pressure on the disc which will then put pressure on the nerve.

It's funny how much you can learn from reading when you spend a week on the floor with your legs up on a chair because that's the only position where your back doesn't hurt. For what it's worth, I have a good friend who also has back problems. He's going the pain management route where they do injections to alleviate the pain. He's getting good results so far.

Message therapy? Telegram, E-mail, listening to a phone's voicemail?

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaasage! brain knew but failed to tell the fingers
And it was carrier pigeons. She told me "if ya wanna beat that back pain.. ya gotta be fast... now catch that bird!"