I hope somebody can straighten me out because now that I’m not standing there talking with my doctor, I think I’ve gotten some of what he carefully explained confused or wrong or missing.
I have lower back pain and sciatica, and he just got some XRays of my lower spine. He said they show little bony growths extending radially out from the wear surfaces of each vertibra, and sketched what looked to me like the mushrooming metal edges that form on the hammered end of a chisel. I thought he called these “osteolites” or “osteoliths” but have searched for these terms and they now don’t seem right (I’m finding foreign language references and trade names for goddam paint). He said these little growths can push on things and irritate them, and I’m thinking this is a reference to the sciatic nerve. I think he said these growths aren’t normal but are also not rare, and they’re the result of years of wear and tear on the spine. As in, 47 years, and I should stop fooling around with concrete projects.
Can anybody shed some light on this, make some sense of what I thought I heard? Thanks!!!