@gingerw, The other day I met a new young neighbor with his beautiful young dog. Turns out he'd bought the house on the street corner where I'd spent much of one previous summer "hauling free river rocks" to fill a flowerbed next to the street. Told him my story and he quickly "invited me to return to his corner anytime" for more rocks!

After deeply digging out the soil and lining the area with heavy duty plastic, I was both shocked and amused the next spring to find one iris actually sprouting in one corner of that bed! We Know weeds can grow through solid concrete, lol, but an iris???

Surprised at the spreading "crop" of shallow rooted "winter" grass in my raised veggie bed, it was my fault for not getting a heavy layer of mulch spread last fall. However, wearing a padded lower back with velco straps "brace"? allowed me to do an hour of digging Sunday afternoon. The ground was soft from earlier snow & ice and the exercise was great. Still more to go but was so happy to be in the sun and playing in the dirt again!

Just catching up on posts and hoping your MRI proved helpful? and that you receive a good report on your dexascan later this month.
Until one struggles with back problems, we don't fully appreciate how incredibly important bone strength is. Please let us know how you are doing.