MRI results

I had an MRI of my back today and I guess I have a good reason for all my whining! (Not that anyone was accusing me of being a whiner, I just felt like I was complaining a lot!) I have a large disc herniation between L5 and S1 that is protruding posteriorly and slightly to the left and it's pressing on my nerve root. Your disc should be flush with your vertebrae, but this one is stuck out more than a cm past the vertebrae and it's more than a cm wide too.

I work with an MRI tech and she went over the images with me. When she first saw them, she used words like: "Jesus", "Oh my God Heather" and "that's really nasty". So I guess it's pretty serious!

I spoke with my doctor and she wants me to go to physio, take anti-inflammatories, ice and rest, and I'll see her in a month. I'm hoping that I can get this fixed enough so that I can stop limping and start playing soccer again. I have my doubts that I'll be playing this season though. But there may also be the possibility that I'll need surgery down the road. My mother had the same problem at my age and needed a spinal fusion. Yikes!

So I guess P90X is out of the question for a while at least. I do hope to get back into it sometime down the road, but for now I guess I'll just take it easy. I'll keep you posted.

Taking a break

I'm very disappointed to say that my body is in need of a break for at least a couple of weeks. I went to see a physiotherapist yesterday (and I've also been seeing a chiropractor) and they have both insinuated that maybe I should rest my back for a little while. It kills me to have to stop exercising for a bit...especially that I have to take a break from soccer. But soccer is what bothers my back the most because there is a lot of pounding involved.

My instructions are to ice my back a lot, rest it as much as possible...and lie on my back as much as possible. Yikes! That's a hard one! Apparently even stretching my back and leg is doing me more harm than good. So I think my best bet is to totally stop exercising for 2 weeks and see if there are any improvements. Hopefully I won't have to take off any longer than that, but I realize it may be necessary. It just sucks that the soccer season is so short.

Also, I'm so close to being done P90X and I'm nowhere near where I wanted to be, weight-wise. I wanted to be in a bikini by this time, and although it is physically possible for me to wear one, I wouldn't be caught dead in it right now! Don't get me wrong...I have accomplished a lot since starting P90X and I have lost a lot of fat, but I'm not where I want to be yet. So fingers crossed that my little break doesn't last too long.

Checking in again

Hi all. Yes, I'm still here. This month has been terrible for working out for me and I feel so guilty! I'm still having major problems with sciatic nerve pain and it's making my life difficult. I limp around most of the time and it's hard to play soccer and to do a lot of different activities. I'm so close to being done P90X, but since I've been away from it for so long, I feel like I might need to repeat a couple of my last weeks before I finish. I'm losing a lot of the muscle tone that I've worked so hard to build up and I know that my fitness test at the end won't be accurate because I haven't exercised in so long. Argh! This is really frustrating!! I want to be more active but my body just won't let me!

I have an appt with a physiotherapist today and I've been seeing my chiropractor as well. I've also made an appt with my family doctor to see if I can get an MRI done to see if my problem is in fact a disc issue. It may end up that I need to take of the summer off from soccer, or just plain take it easy from exercising and rest. I really hope it doesn't come to that because I've been working hard to get into better shape. If I can't exercise, I'll really need to work on my diet alone in order to lose lbs.