I have had severe lower back pain all week, and have had both a cat scan and an X-ray of my abdomen and lower back. Doctor called me up 2 days ago and sounding fairly ominous, told me there was something unusual on my X-ray, and I better come into his office!!!--Now this is news that you just don't want to hear when you are 67 years old!!! (or at any other age). After 2 days more of pain (compounded with worry), I went to see the Doc yesterday. He had good news/bad news. The good news is, that its just plain old down and dirty arthritis with maybe a pinched nerve. The bad new is---I'M A FREAK!!! Where most people have 5 bones in their lower back, I have SIX!!! Doc told me it was fairly unusual, but he had seen it before. Its not freaky enough that I can run off and join Barnum and Bailey and make some extra money on the weekends. So now I'm off to the physiotherapist for prodding/punching/ultrasound. and maybe acupuncture. Of course, when you think 0f all the truly horrible things it could have been, I guess a go-round with the physiotherapist isn't that bad. I hope she's an eighteen year old blond----.