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I think I have some kind of recurring misalignment in my pelvic girdle. The right sacroiliac joint (attaches the central triangle-shaped sacrum to the pink-outlined part in the above linked picture) seems to slip slightly every so often, then making me walk even more like an old woman. I think it triggers a spasm in the deep muscles (mimics a herniated disc), also called piriformis syndrome, about which there is some controversy in diagnosis.
But I think that's it. At work the other day, I had someone down the hall trained in these matters poke & prod me bum, finding the telltale point of tenderness at the side of the sacrum and other positive rotational tests. So, we got on the floor and did some hip-popping manuevers as well as directed pressure, and I felt the joint kind of slide right back into place. Bingo! No pain.
Bizarre.
I wonder: a) what the level of certainty really is that this is, in fact, a real condition (piriformis syndrome), and b) how many cases of lower back pain are mistakenly assigned to a "herniated disc," rather than this?
I honestly don't know. It's on my plate for the weekend to read up on it. Anyone here with any familiarity on the topic?
Any lower back pain stories to share?
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
Um, my bones in and around the pelvis shift and move around all the time and cause me no end of pain and discomfort. And I also have lower back pain. My shifting and whatnot is tied to my wacky hormones. Mostly the docs just ignore what I'm saying.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Have you gone to see a chiropractor? I had been having a lot of lower back pain, and he's helped me out a lot.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Also, I am disappointed in Bob for not picking up on the hip pop puntential. I feel he may be tamed by marriage and impending fatherhood, and that his punning days are done. I mean, the last time we had a Smackdown was quite some time ago.
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Thanks for the encouragement and big smiles. I'm going to be fine -- just inquisitive.
Flying Cow, I've considered it. This is the sort of thing I'd expect chiropracty to be designed for, and there is one associated with my HMO. (We have a "wellness center" with access to massage, chiropracty, acupuncture, etc.).
And Liz, Bob is just saving up his energy for a huge smackdown.
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CT: question. Have you recently either lost weight or gotten in better shape? The reason I ask is that I had a terrible hip misalignment a couple of times, as I lost weight and played soccer. I think the shift of weight might have thrown out the hip. The chiropractor thought so, too, and said that when you lose weight, and/or develop muscle, though it is a good thing, that certain parts of your body might rebel. Very hip-ocritcal, I'd say.
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I get that from time to time, usually as a result of trying to stand on one foot while putting on my underwear. There is an exercise therapy called Feldenkrais that deals with such things, since it is difficult for even a really good massage therapist to get in there. It helps the piriformis to reset its tension level.
Another, slightly more out to lunch solution, is touch for health which is a fusion of accupuncture meridians and nutrition. The main one I always seemed to need was b vitamins for the knife like tension in my left shoulder. That or give up sugar. Though since I did cut my sugar way back a couple of years ago, the left shoulder knifey thing has kind of gone away. But yeah, we'd usually rather take a remedy than remove the bane.
In that general spirit, the theory is that tensions can be the result of correllary weakness. So to help your piriformis ease up, you may want to strengthen... whatever is on the other side.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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All my back pain has been due to my freakishly large chest (I'm 5'4'' and a DD cup) or the baby. When I was pregnant, I had such a raging UTI that I thought my pelvis was separating.
BTW, I'm so non-medically oriented, that I thought this thread was about an underwear girdle and I couldn't imagine why you would be wearing one, CT.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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That only occasionally happens to my pelvic joints, although my knees and ankles slip out all the time. It runs in my family; my brother can dislocate his shoulder at the drop of a pin.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Any chance this can be brought on by childbirth or pregnancy? My wife has been suffering from similar pain since the baby was born.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I don't see why not. Pregneant women have higher dietary requirements, so anything they don't get enough of is bound to cause some problem in the long run.
Posts: 1138 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Oh, I'd say it could! The joints get looser during pregnancy, and all that extra strain on your joints, ligaments, and muscles don't do wonders for them, either.
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: That only occasionally happens to my pelvic joints, although my knees and ankles slip out all the time. It runs in my family; my brother can dislocate his shoulder at the drop of a pin.
Because I get a feeling like that sometimes. In fact, it happens sometimes when I sleep. I sleep on my side, and I'll get pain on the side on which I am not sleeping. And I've been told that being super tall is part of what makes my joints all funky.
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Tante, I've never heard of that! I don't think any of us have symptoms that severe, although, as I said, all of my mother's children (including my half-sisters) and my mother have had joint poppage pretty much ever since we can remember. My brother's is more severe than the rest of ours, or maybe he was just rougher as a toddler? Anyway, his preschool ended up with a note from his pediatrician on file stating that his dislocated shoulders were the result of a congenital tendency to dislocate, and not child abuse-- after the third time DCFS was called. And he had some hypotonia and severe dysgraphia. I've had mysterious shooting bone pain since I was a teenager that they eventually said must be some auto-immune thing (but not Lupus) since they couldn't find another cause for it. Could we all have a mild, mild form of it, and not know it? I mean, my mom's a nurse and has worked with genetic disorders since the 80's, and she's never mentioned it... And the symptoms are not enough to be termed "debilitating" in any of us, nor are they progressive.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Could be. Some expressions are quite mild, other forms more serious. It is the kind of thing that most folk, even medical folk, aren't familiar with.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Very interesting! Maybe someday I'll find out. As it is, we've all learned to deal with the dislocations and how to manipulate most of them back in ourselves, and I just take a painkiller when my bone pain flares up.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: That only occasionally happens to my pelvic joints, although my knees and ankles slip out all the time. It runs in my family; my brother can dislocate his shoulder at the drop of a pin.
Do you have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? It is a genetic thing that causes joint instability.
Actually, I think that's me.
I saw a neurologist years ago because of my migraines and the history of aneurysms and strokes in our family, and the doc asked a bunch of questions about my joints. Yes, I can dislocate anything pretty easily. My shoulders can fall out of joint just by me relaxing my muscles too much. Hips come out of joint if I sleep on a waterbed, but I can pop them out easily enough anyway. Same with all my fingers, toes, ankles, wrists. Pelvic bones slip around, but are worse with hormone fluctuations. I used to have problems with my ribs doing something wonky when I had a bad cough - it seems that things that normally fuse didn't fuse with me, or fused late, or something like that.
Anyway, said neurosurgeon told me my joint disorder was genetic and associated with a higher risk of aneurysms, which it sounds like that is.
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