The sun is trying to come out today.  I've been busying cleaning window blinds.  You know, window blinds totally suck for trying to clean.  I mean, I was beginning to feel like throwing them away and buying a new set.  It's done now, so I won't have to worry about them for another few months.

My back is still hurting me.  Lovely waves of hot pain that runs from my lower back around to the front of my thigh to my knee.  :|  As I had stated previously, I went to see another Orthopedic.  She found that indeed I do have some deterioration in my lower disks, L5 area and that I have a compression fracture in my L3.  She stated it was an old "war" wound and that I probably sustained it when I had the car accident back in 2004, when I broke my foot.  She stated that this compression fracture could also be the cause of the nerve compression that is causing a wave of pain to go around to the front of my right leg.  The doctor has decided to take things one step at a time.  She prescribe prednisone (5 day pack) and put me on muscle relaxers and is sending me to physical therapy (pt).  She wants to see me in a month to see if these things helped.  First day with PT was this past Thursday and well, basically she assigned some exercises that I need to do at home.  Mostly hamstring stretching, since those are connected to my butt muscles, which are then connected to my lower back.  The PT said that those hamstrings are so tight that they are pulling on my lower back causing the pain in my lower spine and also compressing on the sciatica nerve. 

Speaking of hamstring exercises, does any of you folks do Pilates?  The PT was saying that a lot of Pilates workouts actually are excellent for people who suffer back pain, because the exercises are for the "Core" of your body, your stomach and spine and will strengthen these areas so that your spine is supported, which takes the pressure off and easing back pains.  So, I went out and bought some Pilates tapes.  I'm looking forward to starting these and I hope they will help.