Running with a broken back?

Add this to my list of "things that suck":

After 2 months of massage, chiropractic, Active Release Therapy, ultrasound, heating pads, smelly topical gels (like Tiger Balm), I finally went to an orthopedic surgeon to see if he could figure out why I was getting pain in my hip (near my hip flexor, moving into the groin), soreness in my glutes, and suddenly tight hamstrings, with a dash of sciatica to top it all off.

After an MRI and a half-a-dozen x-rays he happily announced, "Well, we found something."

That something is a grade 1 spondylolisthesis (say that ten times fast) between L5 and my sacrum.

He asked if I had ever gotten any lower back injuries, and before I could finish the sentence, "I was a gymnast, and..." he interrupted and said, "Oh, gymnastics is the #1 cause of this injury."

The # 2 cause? Diving. My first sport.

In essence, the injury is a minor fracture that breaks off the part of your vertebrae that keeps it from moving forward and backward, allowing the vertebrae above the sacrum to shift forward.

In my case, the shift is only about a centimeter (that's less than 1/2" to those of you who can only think in English measurements), and the disk between the L5 and S is also compressed.

Put the 2 together, and you get all my symptoms!

That's the good news.

Seems that my transition from barely-active guy to guy-who-runs-10-to-15-miles-per-week exacerbated the issue. People can have this problem all their life and not have any symptoms if they don't do anything that puts more stress on the joint, which most people (that is, people who stop various gravity challenging sports) don't do.

The other good news is that they can probably eliminate the inflammation that's causing the pain, tightness, etc. with a small cortisone shot. I'm no fan of cortisone but I'm even less of a fan of the pain and inability to workout that I'm experiencing.

But the not-good news is that the shot is simply treating the symptom.

And the worse news is that there's not much to do about the cause. Physical Therapy could help, but the odds are not good it'll get the vertebrae back where it belongs or eliminate the pressure that has deflated the disk.

And the REALLY bad news is that if it gets worse, the current treatment is spinal fusion. Don't even get me started on the complications that could create.

So, at this point, I'm looking to get the shot, get some PT and see if it's even possible to continue running.

I'm more than a bit sad when I think that this injury is incompatible with being able to put on my spikes and speed down the track (let alone speed down the runway and jump into a sand pit). I've been having as much fun with the training (even including the minor pulls and tears) as I have been with the fantasy that I'll be able to run at speeds that would be internationally competitive (and even more with the fantasy that, in a few years, the hurdle height drops to something that a 5'6" guy could easily handle).

Cross your fingers. Mine are.