According to my orthopedic doctor, I have lumbar spondylolisthesis. After seven months of almost unbearable hip pain, I'm not sure what I was expecting the doctor to say to me. Perhaps something along the lines of, "just a muscle spasm you weak baby, buck up and go get a massage!" Instead, he informed me my lifelong battle with lower back pain was the culprit of my mysterious hip pain, and my lower back pain was actually not just weak back muscles, rather Lumbar Spondylolisthesis, which essentially means that one of my lower vertebra is slipping over another vertebra causing pressure on the nerve.
Ok, so I'm thankful I don't have arthritis, or missing cartiledge, but I can't help being slightly down that it seems my body has a slight "Made in China by sweatshop babies" quality to it. Ironically, Lumbar Spondylolisthesis is quite popular among Asians.
The really good news is that my doctor isn't surgery happy. In fact, he's amazed at how well I've managed my pain (go yoga!) so we're going to try physical therapy. Words like invasive, removal, and fusion are still ringing in my ears when he spoke to me briefly about my surgery options. Oh, and the recovery time is a speedy 6-9 months.
For more information, and images of x-rays that look exactly like mine, visit:
http://www.drdillin.com/education/basics_lspondy.htm
Mopy out
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