Pretty lousy back day. Being the weekend, this is usual. I don't know whether it's due to the fact that I spend more time lying down and trying to relax my lower back muscles (and therefore the spine returns to its orginal painful state), or whether it's that I have less on my mind and therefore I worry more about my back. I suspect it's more likely to be the former.

More than ever, I feel (a) I've just been put back together the wrong way and something is rubbing another surface causing pain. Facet joint? SI joint? The only other possible options seem to be (b) this pain was there all along and masked by the L5-S1 disc pain before the operation, or (c) in the 2 years before the operation, my lower back muscles became so weak, that they couldn't take on their orginal role after the fusion succeeded. I don't really believe the younger surgeon I visited recently since these pains are different from the ones I had before the operation. Furthermore, more fiddling in Photoshop revealed that there was probably no movement at the fusion level (flexion vs extension).

I plan to buy a partial model skeleton so I can figure it out for myself. I haven't been able to locate a seller in Hong Kong or online since I don't really know what to call it. Essentially it's what doctors have in their clinics, so I'll have to ask next time I visit a helpful one.