Si Joint Injury, Losing Hope, Help

Sorry if I’m posting in the wrong place. I figured it would get more views here.

For the past three months I have been dealing with an Injury in the lower leback area on the left. It was caused by a deadlIfting session gone wrong. As I was about to come to a stand, my right hamstring gave way which made me twist a little and I dropped the weight. was first diagnosed as a strain in which I had received 8 sessions of PT to no avail (TENS & ultrasound). Had an MRI which only showed mild facet arthropathy at L5/S1in which I was told is normal and is not likely the cause of the pain.

I then saw another PT who examined me, he said that I had a slight leg length discrepency and that is caused by a pelvic tilt due to tight muscles in my left side of the body irritating th SI joint caused by the trauma (is this even possible)
I have’t stepped foot in the gym since the injury. I have not gotten better since. The pain is irritated by sitting and standing, the pain is always at 3 but sometimes it gets to a 5 or a 6.

Is there hope? Should I brace myself for a lifetime of pain management and antidepressant pills?? What are your experiences? I am really in the gutter here, I am a lost soul.

Thank you

Bump… anybody here experienced this?

[quote]Tjmacro wrote:
Sorry if I’m posting in the wrong place. I figured it would get more views here.

For the past three months I have been dealing with an Injury in the lower leback area on the left. It was caused by a deadlIfting session gone wrong. As I was about to come to a stand, my right hamstring gave way which made me twist a little and I dropped the weight. was first diagnosed as a strain in which I had received 8 sessions of PT to no avail (TENS & ultrasound). Had an MRI which only showed mild facet arthropathy at L5/S1in which I was told is normal and is not likely the cause of the pain.

I then saw another PT who examined me, he said that I had a slight leg length discrepency and that is caused by a pelvic tilt due to tight muscles in my left side of the body irritating th SI joint caused by the trauma (is this even possible)
I have’t stepped foot in the gym since the injury. I have not gotten better since. The pain is irritated by sitting and standing, the pain is always at 3 but sometimes it gets to a 5 or a 6.

Is there hope? Should I brace myself for a lifetime of pain management and antidepressant pills?? What are your experiences? I am really in the gutter here, I am a lost soul.

Thank you[/quote]

I have run the distance with that hip/back/leg pain. I have heard everything there is to hear; the pelvic tilt, leg length discrepancy, bursa this, impingement that. I’ve had my hip injected, my SI joint injected and my facet joint injected, and nothing worked. Now I will say when I got away from heavy deep squats, things got much better over the period of 6 months. My pain was never intense, more like an ache but always present.

I know I didn’t paint a pretty picture for you but the take away is you know yourself better than anyone. Find what really caused the problem and avoid it; not as simple as it sounds. My problem was cumulative, too much of too much for too long.

The good part; you used your head and backed off the weights. That will let everything settle down. You are 23 y.o. and your recovery will happen in time. Any chance in finding a good Chiropractor? Best guy I ever had has passed away last year. He could get that lower back/ SI joint in place. I mean, you felt it go and knew it as soon as you got up.

To answer some of your questions: yes it is possible to have trauma cause your body to do some crazy things. I have mild scoliosis and it causes me to be prone to lower back strains, always in the same spot. However, these strains cause my glutes, hams, and piriformis to tighten up and for the first couple days I usually have so sciatica because of the inflamed muscles.

Now, like doublelung (awesome PP btw) said, you need to figure out what is actually causing the pain and address it. Try everything, sports massage, graston, ART, a chiropractor. All of it. And if the pain is exacerbated by sitting, don’t sit. Do some walking if you can, and if being out of the gym makes you depressed, go in and get some upper body work in.

Don’t pay too much attention to the leg length discrepancy talk. IMO that is mostly quackery. Nobody is symmetric but asymmetries seldom cause pain like what you have.

Sometimes SI injuries can trigger Ankylosing Spondylitis in people who are prone to it. People then stare themselves blind at the supposed injury and miss the diagnosis of the inflammtory condition. AS Is a chronic inflammatory condition that almost always starts in the SI joints. It would be a good idea to get a contrast MRI of the SI joints for diagnostic purposes, instead of continuing puttering around with chiros.

In the meantime, to determine if it is an inflammatory condition as opposed to a mechanical one, you can try a course of pretty high dose NSAIDs for a couple of weeks and see if it makes a difference. I would recommend something like Aleve (naproxen) two tablets in the morning and two in the evening (you can check the dosage for AS on rxlist.com - it is about double the over the counter recommended dose). If this starts to help after a few days, that is pretty clear proof that your pain is inflammatory and you should go to a rheumatologist toute suite. If it doesn’t help, that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t inflammatory, so you might still want to go to a rheumatologist anyway just to rule some things out, especially since you have been suffering for quite a while now.

Avoid antidepressants for pain. They have so many side effects and they are really at best only slightly effective for pain anyway.

[quote]seekonk wrote:
Don’t pay too much attention to the leg length discrepancy talk. IMO that is mostly quackery. Nobody is symmetric but asymmetries seldom cause pain like what you have.

Sometimes SI injuries can trigger Ankylosing Spondylitis in people who are prone to it. People then stare themselves blind at the supposed injury and miss the diagnosis of the inflammtory condition. AS Is a chronic inflammatory condition that almost always starts in the SI joints. It would be a good idea to get a contrast MRI of the SI joints for diagnostic purposes, instead of continuing puttering around with chiros.

In the meantime, to determine if it is an inflammatory condition as opposed to a mechanical one, you can try a course of pretty high dose NSAIDs for a couple of weeks and see if it makes a difference. I would recommend something like Aleve (naproxen) two tablets in the morning and two in the evening (you can check the dosage for AS on rxlist.com - it is about double the over the counter recommended dose). If this starts to help after a few days, that is pretty clear proof that your pain is inflammatory and you should go to a rheumatologist toute suite. If it doesn’t help, that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t inflammatory, so you might still want to go to a rheumatologist anyway just to rule some things out, especially since you have been suffering for quite a while now.

Avoid antidepressants for pain. They have so many side effects and they are really at best only slightly effective for pain anyway.[/quote]

“Don’t pay too much attention to the leg length discrepancy talk. IMO that is mostly quackery. Nobody is symmetric but asymmetries seldom cause pain like what you have.”

lulz, false, but in this instance I do not believe that a leg length discrepancy is the source of OP’s pain.

"Sometimes SI injuries can trigger Ankylosing Spondylitis in people who are prone to it. People then stare themselves blind at the supposed injury and miss the diagnosis of the inflammtory condition. AS Is a chronic inflammatory condition that almost always starts in the SI joints. It would be a good idea to get a contrast MRI of the SI joints for diagnostic purposes, instead of continuing puttering around with chiros. "

more likely sacroliitis than a chronic condition such as AS

“(it is about double the over the counter recommended dose)”

zoinks^

OP your best course of action is to get a follow-up with a better ortho doctor, find the best one in your area based on reputation. They may do a steroid injection etc which may provide you with some relief while they sort out the proper diagnosis.

In the meantime you can give an SI belt a shot along with some soft tissue mobilization and a positioning program.

Chronic sacroiliitis is THE hallmark of spondylitis. An NSAID trial is cheap and easy and safe to do, and if it helps it would be a very useful diagnostic data point.

I don’t think I have AS, I was healthy as a horse before all this started. Thank you for reply guys. You hear of people getting bulges and muscle strains down there. But never this. I guess I’ll have to learn to live with it

Bumping this one last time

[quote]seekonk wrote:
Chronic sacroiliitis is THE hallmark of spondylitis. An NSAID trial is cheap and easy and safe to do, and if it helps it would be a very useful diagnostic data point. [/quote]

YAY NSAID trials at twice the recommended dose FTW!!!

Your saying NSAIDS wouldnt help with
1.) Disc Herniation
2.) Sciatic irritation
3.) Muscle Strain
4.) SI dysfunction
5.) Facet dysfunction
6.) Spondylithesis

They would:
NSAIDS, therefore will not be a valuable diagnostic data point at all actually.
AS is typically in an older population >60

OP NSAIDS will be fine, just not going to provide much of a diagnostic tool. You’d be better off getting a proper physical examination as well as doing some soft tissue work and research yourself in the time being

So today I have formally started my rehab (the correct one I hope). I’m not gonna lie, I have been depressed that I haven’t been going to the gym for 3+ months, losing my gains along the way. However, I will have the rest of my life to get that back. And so, for the next month I shall shut out the negative thoughts and I shall focus my entire attention on the rehab program. I hope that the next time that I update this forum it will be good news. Thank u all for the input … And god speed

I’m a little late here, but maybe it’s not the best idea to suggest to people you don’t know to ingest high dosages of NSAIDs and claim that it’s a safe diagnostic tool–especially when it is neither safe nor a diagnostic tool. I also find it a little odd that you suggest a rare inflammatory disorder in someone suffering from a 3 month old traumatic injury. Having the hallmark of something =/= having something.

Bizarre.

Good luck with the rehab OP.