Spondylolisthesis - The beginning discovery

Week 1 - the pain leading to the discovery. 

I have been practicing BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) for a long time and coaching for many years.  I had never heard of Spondylolisthesis before but was about become very familiar with it on a personal level.  I spend a good part of my working day sitting at a computer in my office.  I get up every once in a while and walk around but on this particular day I had just returned from a week of vacation and spent most of the day sitting catching up on email and work.  At the end of the day, I left my office and walked to my car.  On the way to my car my back started to feel a little pain.  No big deal I thought as I'd been sitting longer than usual that day.  This was Monday.  As I drove my car it got worse and that was the beginning of a week long episode of low back pain.  The next day was Tuesday and I made an appointment with my chiropractor for a massage and an adjustment.  I didn't feel any better or worse and my back was still super tight and painful.  I could NOT bend over without severe pain.  I saw my chiropractor again on Thursday.  She recommended I get xrays of my low back since I had never done so and was in such pain.  Xray showed I have grade 1 Spondylolisthesis with a pars fracture.  After viewing the xray and seeing that I was still in a lot of pain she recommended that I see a physician and see if some kind of anti-inflammatory might help.  I saw an MD and he prescribed prednisone (steroidal anti-inflammatory).  This seemed to help tremendously.  It was a 5 day course and by the end of the 5th day my pain was down considerably and only hurt when I arched back or if I sat and tried to put on my shoes.  This was still a huge improvement over the painful week I had just experienced. 

Week 2 - relief and sadness. 

I'd put the pain from week 1 at an 8 out of 10.  The second week was 4 out of 10 and even less if I was walking slowly or laying down.  I had begun reading about Spondylolisthesis every night and trying to search forums and the internet for others that had it.  Specifically I was looking for BJJ and martial artists but wasn't have a lot of luck finding people and the few I did it was hard to contact them for more information.  I got an appointment with an Orthopedic surgeon for Friday.  He started talking about surgery with screws in my spine and I started to get really sad.  I asked about Physical therapy and he just brushed it off and I believe his words were "Nah."