SI Joint Pain...Frustrated.

[daisylubob]

SO now, after doing Pilates on Wed, yoga on Thurs, 1 hr bike ride on Fri....sore lowback, mainly on the L, w/ pain on the outside of the hip, and down my left leg in the back near the hamstring. It bothers the back of my L leg to sit on it. Hurts to bend. I could hardly do my wts on Sat (which I probably should not have). My PT appt is Thursday.....Sheesh what next??

[KnottedYet]

Pretty much exactly what I'd expect given what appears to be going on with you. It's the same problem.

Sally will show you how to work on fixing it. You'll probably leave her with one exercise (to do multiple times a day, and when you feel symptoms) a lot of posture corrections to maintain at least until the symptoms are gone, and a pretty thorough explanation of why.

[daisylubob]

Pretty much exactly what I'd expect given what appears to be going on with you. It's the same problem.

Sally will show you how to work on fixing it. You'll probably leave her with one exercise (to do multiple times a day, and when you feel symptoms) a lot of posture corrections to maintain at least until the symptoms are gone, and a pretty thorough explanation of why.

I can't wait to see her. I am really tired of this pain, little relief and no answers from the experts I have seen...

[daisylubob]

I saw Sally this morning. She asked me questions and had me do some different moves/bends that no else had ever done. It is apparently a bulging disc, L4-5 or L5-S1. My chiro had mentioned that before. Anyway, she is having me do a modified version of cobra, every 2-3 hours 10 reps. At home, I am to use a towel or strap holding my back down while doing cobra (husband can hold towel or I can lay on a board, wrap the strap around it and me). I am to do this until Monday, then hop on the bike and see what happens. Also keep track of the pain intensity until then. And use lumbar foam roll in chair while sitting. I go back to see her on 3/25. There may be hope.....

[KnottedYet]

Hooray!

That's what it sounded like from your description in your first post. I'm so glad you went to Sally!

Do everything she told you, be diligent! The motion is meant to push the discs back into place... but they are slippery little fish and you have to push them back every couple hours and whenever they start squeaking at you. (if you have symptoms, don't wait 2 hours, do the cobra right now!)

Different discs behave in different ways, so if you start wondering if your cobra is pushing them back well enough be sure to call Sally right away.

I'm so glad you went!

[daisylubob]

So, these are probably stupid questions, but I am impatient when it comes to healing up.

How long before the little disc goes back into its place? Will the pain go away gradually, or overnight magically disapper? And how will I make sure it stays there once it is back in place? What are the chances of it coming back out, especially if the biking position (flexion) may have exacerbated it?

I really hope this works.....

[KnottedYet]

Sally is the best person to answer these questions, because she's seen you and observed the behaviour of your disc.

But, in general:

The disc goes back into place immediately with the corrective motion, or at least partly into place with one set and the rest of the way with the next set or two. The tests Sally did when she had you bend every which way told her how well your disc was going back into place and she based her choice for your first corrective motion (cobra and cobra with overpressure) on what seemed to put your disc back where it belongs.

However, the little booger doesn't stay there... That's why you are doing the corrective motion a gazillion times a day. You are essentially herding cats; chase it where it belongs, it starts sneaking out, chase it back in, etc. and so on.

Your body has been trying to glue the wayward disc where it belongs all this time. But the disc wasn't staying there, so it kept tearing up the glue before the glue had a chance to set. Imagine it is glue that takes a week to dry. If the disc shifted even once during that week, the glue didn't have a chance.

Your corrective motion lets you keep the disc in place long enough for the "glue" to "dry."

If you keep it mostly in, the edges of the bulge will "dry" first. Pain over all begins to decrease. As the glue gets a chance to build up, the disc becomes more and more managable. Eventually the disc is stable enough (the bulge has gotten small enough) that you can get the whole thing into place and it stays for awhile. When it's all the way in, you have no symptoms. You keep it in place for a full week, using the corrective motion prophylactically and your posture. You need to stay symptom free for a full week. Usually by that point the disc repair is complete (the glue has dried undisturbed for a week) and you do a maintainence exercise for a few months to make sure the body gives you the most beautiful repair possible.

Pain is pretty unpredictable. Sometimes irritated neighborhoods stay irritated for awhile. Sometimes relief is immediate, but pain comes back as soon as the disc shifts. More important is your overall sense of "better, worse, or the same," and Sally's evaluation of the quality of your segmental motion as "better, worse, or the same."

Once you have repaired the disc, talk to Sally about ways to keep it from happening again. In all likelihood the biking DID NOT cause the disc to wander out in the first place. Usually the cause is poor posture, and then something else is the final straw. If you are concerned about your biking posture at that point, ask her to check your bike positioning for you.

Really, it will get better! All you are doing is using your body's own corrective motions and processes, and doing them more often than usual so that the process your body was already working on can proceed faster and more efficiently.

Be diligent. If you feel unsure, call Sally and tell her how your back is reacting. The first week is a little rough because the disc bulge doesn't really want to go back into place and it sure doesn't want to stay there. The more time it spends in place, the more fresh collagen builds up without getting torn, the smaller the bulge gets, the easier it becomes to manage.