[mspennyloafer]

have you been told that you have an extra lumbar vertebrae (6 total)

is there an association between the two?

[mspennyloafer]

ugh i wish i could see a better pic of mine, im waiting for a report. i need to see if its "sacralized" or "lumbarized"

it sounds like a cervical rib in your butt

Bertolotti's syndrome
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Bertolotti's syndrome is a form of back pain associated with lumbosacral transitional vertebrae. It can be treated surgically with posterolateral fusion or resection of the transitional articulation. Non surgical treatments include steroid injections in the lower back or radiofrequency sensory ablation. It is named for Mario Bertolotti, an Italian physician [1]

Bertolotti's syndrome is defined by a transitional 5th lumbar vertebrae resulting in partial sacralization. Of importance is that this syndrome will result in a pain generating 4th lumbar disc resulting in a "sciatic" type of a pain correlating to the 5th lumbar nerve root. Usually the transitional vertebra will have a "spatulated" transverse process on one side resulting in articulation or partial articulation with the sacrum or at time the illium and in some cases with both. This results in limited / altered motion at the lumbo-sacral articulation. This loss of motion will then be compensated for at segments superior to the transitional vertebra resulting in accelerated degeneration and strain through the L4 disc level which can become symptomatic and inflame the adjacent L5 nerve root resulting in "sciatic" or radicular pain patterns. This is a congenital condition and is usually not symptomatic until one's later twenties or early thirties, yet there are cases found where Bertolotti's is symptomatic at a much earlier age. MRI help to detect this syndrome.

[mspennyloafer]

well im a bit relieved

my spine isnt sacralized, its lumbarized
also
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21322043
Sacralization is not associated with elongated cervical costal process and cervical rib.
Tague RG.
Source

Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-4105, USA. rtague@lsu.edu
Abstract

Cervical rib/elongated costal process of the seventh cervical vertebra and sacralization of a lumbar vertebra are associated with clinical problems-neurological, vascular, and obstetrical. A previous study reported an association between these morphologies, and suggested that clinicians use presence of one trait to predict presence of the other. This study tested three hypotheses from this association: costal process length among individuals with sacralization differs from that among individuals without sacralization for: (1) only the seventh cervical vertebra, (2) only transitional presacral vertebrae-seventh cervical, twelfth thoracic, and fifth lumbar, and (3) presacral vertebrae in general. Skeletons of 961 individuals between ages 20 and 49 years from the United States were surveyed for sacralization. Costal process length was measured on 100 individuals with sacralization and 184 without sacralization for cervical vertebrae 3 to 7, thoracic vertebrae 11 and 12, and all lumbar vertebrae. Cervical rib was evaluated for 102 individuals with sacralization and 472 without sacralization. Results showed that 11% (105 of 961) of individuals have sacralization. Compared to individuals without sacralization, those with sacralization: (1) have significantly longer costal process for the last lumbar vertebra, but are nonsignificantly different for costal process lengths of other vertebrae, (2) are nonsignificantly different in prevalence of cervical rib-2.9% with sacralization and 0.4% without sacralization, and (3) are significantly more likely to have an extra presacral vertebra. Clinically, results suggest that sacralization is not a predicate for either cervical rib or elongated costal process of the seventh cervical vertebra.