Lumbar Discomfort

I had a CAT scan last week on my lower back, and the happy news is that no cats were detected. Less happy is the news that I have a bulging disc - it's a small to moderate-sized diffuse disc bulge between L4 and L5, to be precise. It's a fairly common occurance, and is typically caused by weak muscle development or activation in one's core. The solution is to let the disc heal, and do exercises to strengthen the core so that it doesn't happen again. The problem is, I've been doing exactly that for the last year or so. I do all the right things - all the things that should work - and things still go to hell.

I've come to the conclusion that Canadian physios (or Vancouver physios, whatever) just aren't very good. If I had some hyper-rare nerve disease contracted from excessive sushi consumption that is only treatable by three Nobel-prize-winning back specialists in the mountains of Tibet, I wouldn't expect the local physios to be able to help me. Hearing that it's a pretty common and easily-handled problem and still having to go through months and months of treatment, pain and screwing about is just annoying.

It's no surprise that I'm not going back to my now ex-physio before I leave Canada. I'll be doing my exercises morning and night, and staying away from lead hula hoops, but I'll hopefully get some real treatment back in Australia.