[Para]

This is not an attempt to solicite diagnositic medical advise, more so to draw from a vast field of expertise and experiences from those who can relate.

Several months ago, while in Phase IV, in the Field exercise just prior to the insertion into Robin Sage, I experienced a very painful lower back injury. I have never had a back injury beforehand. We had been walking for maybe an hour with my ruck weight hovering around 125 or so. The weight was relatively light compared to the weights of the rucks in Max Gain just a few months earlier. We were waiting our turn at one of the negotiation stations. I squated down and lowered myself into the ruck sack flop. I don't remember there being any twisting of my body what so ever. We stayed there for about 15 minutes and when it was our turn to go I started to get up. I lifted a leg and thats when I felt it, a very intense, sharp and shooting pain run through my back. It took everything I had to just stand up and within a minute I was back on the ground.

The next few days I would need assistance just to stand up and could walk, but not without serious pain. The first few days was Tordal shots followed by Flexerall (or something like that). Within a week the pain had subsided down enough that I was able to insert and continue on with only stiffness and the occasional mild pain.

Forward a few months. Every once in awhile I can feel a pull between what would appear to be the lower spine and the interior of my left hip. Not surface muscles, but rather deeper. My flexability is not hampered in anyway, so I was not overtly concerned about it, until just the other day. I was working out doing back exercises when I felt a couple rapid sharp, shooting pains in my lower back. To which I immediately ended my workout session and have been left with a bit of stiffness in my lower back.

It has been recommended that I see a Chiorpractor. So here are some questions that I have that maybe you all can assist me on. I have been told this will probably be a reaccuring thing I may face for the rest of my life, but I have always been under the belief that proper strengthing of the supporting muscles can greatly assist in preventing further injury. What exercises would be recommended? Is a Chiorpractor plausable or should I steer clear of that as it will only increase the problem? Anyone have any recommendations for quality Chiorpractors in the Bragg area? Anything else that I don't know, that maybe I should? Should I be taken out back and be put down like a crippled mare?