Ok.. so my options are..?

I was all in the throwes of writing a post challenge expose when I rememered that I'd better be rushing off to see my new doctor about the MRI scan.

Veeeery interesting. Even if I can't exactly recommend back pain as a lifestyle option, I can recommend getting an in depth look at ones inside structures as a diverting way to fill in half an hour. I am proud to report that my back pain has reasons, but less thrilled that the treatment options are extremely limited. It can clearly be seen that I've had a herniated disc at some time (as I expected) but it's behaving in exactly the way a herniated disc would be expected to. There is a slight bulge but it's not near the nerve and shouldn't cause me any more issues as long as I self-manage and don't do anything stupid like try to squat 100kg. I mean, I'm not thrilled that I have a disc injury, but it doesn't really scare me that badly. The second issue is some fluid in the sacroiliac joint and this is most likely what is causing me such pain at night. There is one option for treatment - a big nasty injection of steroids right into the joint, which might give me weeks to months of relief. It's not a permanent fix. Injecting into the SI joint is very tricky and has a high failure rate. Even guiding the needle under xray, they miss the spot 30% of the time and in my particular case the problem is at the 'front' and even harder to get to because they go in from the back.

I don't think I'm going for the injection. I'm not incapacitated and in fact, the pain does seem to be improving. I'm thinking to try an alternative, holistic approach. Already I've noted that some things help - like stretching, fish oil, dancing, cutting back on coffee :( and some things aggravate - like weighted squats and lunges, sitting on my butt for hours and stress. I'm tossing up the idea of trying an anti-inflammation style diet for a few weeks to see if there is improvement, but I dunno. The idea of any 'diet' makes me fret and stress and that's not good for me. If I can get relaxed about the idea then I'll do it, but otherwise I'll just cut back gently on known inflammatory foods like coffee and sugar and go hard on the veges.