I have been diagnosed with esophageal cancer that metastized to my L3, right pelvis and liver. I have a lot of lumbar pain upon movement. I have not had a followup appt. yet with a dr. after the MRI which showed a compression fracture of L3. In general, from your experience, would be your advice on what activities I can or should not do? I have to do some lifting of wood & coal to heat my house, and other lifting at times which makes pain worse. Am I not to do anything as it might make the fracture worse or cause damage to spinal cord? I don't want to get weak either by lying around. I try to do as much activity as I can tolorate as I'm used to being very active. I had been swimming at the pool to try to relieve pain and doing the inversion table. Are these 2 activities OK? Will the fracture ever heal? Would I be a candidate for surgery? Thank you for any advice. Jim