The picture on the right is actually a MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) of the lower back. Similar to an X-Ray, MRI is a more expensive tool used by doctors to determine the problem with your soft tissues, which wouldn’t turn up in an X-Ray.

The “Discs” as pointed by the arrows in the picture, are actually the cushion of your spine. Like a car suspension, they contract and expand when you flex and bend your spine.

As the years goes by, due to poor care, inproper body posture, poor conditioning of body, weight problems, physical exertion, these disc will wear and tear. It will result in a tear, follow by a rupturing, in which the contents of the disc flows out. A medical condition call “Disc Herniation”.

In the picture, a disc had ruptured at the L4/5 location and is spilling upwards. The white colour “channel” is where your Spinal Cord or Central Nervous System(CNS) lies.

Depending on the seriousness of individual cases, the disc may “touch” the CNS, causing pains traveling down your either legs. Doctors would often advise patients not to go for an operation if the condition is not severe, ie; it does not affect your daily life.

Unfortunately, in my case, it is very bad. I had no choice but to go for a second operation. I can no longer walk properly for a distance more than 100m, without feeling pain in my left leg. It had worsen considerably, after a 12km run in ECP (training for AHM) and a 10km beach run in Sentosa (NIKE Real Run).