Lumbar Injury Concerns

I am 28, and very physically active. Weight lifting caused me a few injuries to my lower back which I believed to be only muscular in nature.  The reason I believe this is because the pain I had subsided after two or three weeks, and then I was back to normal.  Never have I felt any of the sensations that people have described where pain or tingling was felt in other parts of the body.

Recently, I strained my lower back again.  I don't know how or when, but what I did notice is that there is some pain in my 'L' vertebrae when I push on them with my fingers.  No other pain except locally on my backbone.  The backbone diagrams that I looked at indicate that it is probably my L3, L4 and L5.  They are all slightly tender to the touch, but I can otherwise function normally throughout the day, and feel no pain elsewhere in my body.  I noticed this about 4 days ago.

If I have herniated discs, or any sort of nerve impedement as a result of this injury, or my past injuries, would pain or other sensations make it obvious to me?  Should I go see an orthopedic surgeon about it?

[ladymeg]

My Doctor told me that half of the people with bulgeing, or ruptured discs feel NO pain at all!  I wish that would've been my case... I'm just concerned that if yours are damaged that by lifting weights you could make it worse.  The least expensive test is a CAT scan, it'll be able to tell you if your discs are okay or not.  It should cost $200.00-$400.00. If your discs are damaged it would take a minimum of 6-8 weeks of "taking it easy" (no weightlifting) for them to heal!  Just do lots of walking or swimming, low impact exercises. Good luck with you situation.