I’m still decomissioned. I can walk better, although now my hips (particularly on the right) are starting to hurt a little because I walk with a funny gait. I have now been inspected via X-ray and MRI and have been to see an orthopedic nurse practitioner. The result? I have a torn disk. It’s the one between the last two vertibrae. What was explained to me is that a tear in the disk allowed some of its fluid to seep out into the surrounding muscle tissue, causing a great deal of pain and irritation. The fluid is caustic and thus causes a chemical reaction with the effects I described.

Anyway, want to know what his solution was? Walk it off. He wants me to walk as much as possible.
Me: What should I do when I’m not walking?
He: Walk.

Supposedly that will help re-align all the parts down there and physical therapy will help re-strengthen the muscles in my lower back, and with God’s blessing, I’ll be back to normal in a couple weeks or so.

I’m getting digital copies of my Xrays and MRIs tomorrow, so I’ll try to find one that illustrates my injury and post it here for the morbidly curious out there.