A back injury question

[jkw]

I've been struggling with a spate of back injuries over the past months, but something happened to which I was hoping the doctorish types out there or people who have had something similar could lend some insight.

Roughly 2 months ago, on a heavy squat I felt something bad happen in my lower left back coming out of the hole. A quick jab of pain followed by instant muscle spasms. The thing I noticed this time was that as the pain decreased over the next few days and the muscles relaxed, one thing that still really hurt was trying to sit with my back against a wall and placing my legs straight out in front of me. Most other movements felt fine, but that one was just terrible, as if something was physically blocking the movement and causing intense pain. I also had discomfort doing basic spinal flexion like the Cow pose in yoga. Down Dog was also nigh impossible. I went to my doctor who said since I wasn't getting any nerve pain in the butt or legs it was probably not a bad disc injury and didn't think it was my SI joint because the pain was too high. So over the next 5 weeks things were seemingly getting better, little to no pain, better ROM etc.. I still had a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right though, it just didn't feel right.

Then about 3 weeks ago I woke up one morning and within 10 min of awakening was all spasmed up again like crazy. I did not notice a sudden event causing this but this time it felt almost entirely muscular. I thought maybe I had a terrible case of DOMS because I had done some very tiring slow back extensions the day before. But after 3 days the pain had not fully diminished. The thing that I noticed though is that the feeling that made it not feel quite right before was gone. Over the next week the pain went away and while there is still clear weakness there, it feels much better than it had before the second episode. It is as if something popped back into the right spot, which made the muscles freak out again, but was the right place for it to be.

Now, my question is if things can in fact move into a bad spot, and then move back again in the lower back (I know discs don't actually slip, they bulge and they diminish gradually if at all). I have heard that the SI joint can do this, but the acute pain I felt was about 2 inches too high according to the doctor.

[drwost]

If your pain was 2 inches above the SI then it sounds like a spinal problem. Get an MRI to see if any soft tissues structures are damaged, bulges or herniations to make a more definitive diagnosis.