Re: Re: what I'm learning about the SI Joint

[Guest guest]

The pelvis is attached to the sacrum by ligaments. That was what I meant by

loose ligaments. The sacral vertebrae become fused in most humans in their

mid-20's (although in some people they don't fuse, and you can imagine the

problems a person could have if some fused & others didn't!).

Here's a pretty good summary:

http://www.spineuniversity.com/public/spinesub.asp?id=89 One thing they say is:

" The SI joint is a " viscoelastic joint " , meaning that its major movement comes

from giving or stretching. The SI joint's main function appears to be providing

shock absorption for the spine through stretching in various directions. The SI

joint may also provide a " self-locking " mechanism that helps you to walk. The

joint locks on one side as weight is transferred from one leg to the other. "

And " One of the most common causes of problems at the SI joint is an injury. The

injury can come from a direct fall on the buttocks, a motor vehicle accident, or

even a blow to the side of your pelvis. The force from these injuries can strain

the ligaments around the joint. Ligaments are the tough bands of connective

tissue that hold joints together. Tearing of these ligaments can lead to too

much motion in the joint. The excessive motion can eventually lead to wear and

tear of the joint and pain from degenerative arthritis. Injuries can also cause

direct injury of the articular cartilage lining the joint. This too, over time

will lead to degenerative arthritis in the joint. "

Ann

Re: what I'm learning about the SI Joint

Chris:

I don't think it was loose ligaments at all in my pelvis. I think

the SI joint just " popped out " from carrying the heavy laptop bag (w/

heavy textbooks too) on my shoulder -- standing waiting for the

subway, etc.

The loose ligaments were in my knee. My knee was most likely damaged

from running with my left leg 1/2 " longer than my right -- which was

due to the pelvis problem. The first couple of docs I saw said my

cartilage was wearing away, but the " good " doc correctly diagnosed

the problem.

The only way to fix loose ligaments that I know of is prolotherapy.

I don't think stretching & exercises will help much, except perhaps

to unload some of the stresses on a particular area. As I understand

it, once you are older than, say, 18 or 20, ligaments & tendons don't

heal very well on their own. Old folks like us need some external

stimulation (prolo) to promote healing.

- Doug

>

> Other loose ligaments, was there anything else that you're aware of

> that was causing the SI joint to go out on you? They have me doing

a

> bunch of stretches and exercises and I doubt if they'll do much for

> loose ligaments (assuming that's what it is).

[Guest guest]

And as you know, falling is part of (in my case XC) skiing, at least when you're

learning, and when I was learning (10 or so years ago), I got to where I could

not only fall onto snow (which was, that year anyway, also concrete here

(northern Sierra)), but was so used to it that when I went to learn

rollerblading, and fell on real concrete, it was no big deal. But since I

usually managed to land on one of the nice soft cushions God provided us with

back there, and not smack on my tailbone, I'll bet that kind of torque really

set my SI joint up for future unpeasantries.

Ann

Re: what I'm learning about the SI Joint

In chondromalacia treatment , " Ann " <ruby2zdy@f...>

wrote:

>>>>> And " One of the most common causes of problems at the SI joint

is an injury. The injury can come from a direct fall on the

buttocks...

Funny how that works. Around the same time my knee problems started I

spent a weekend trying to learn how to snowboard ( " trying " being the

operative word). I spent a lot of time falling on rock hard S.

Cal " snow. " I remember complaining that they must've just paved the

area over with concrete and painted it white. My sacrum area was sore

for at least 4-5 weeks.

[Guest guest]

what is SI joint? i have fallen a lot in the past too ...hmmm ...

Ann <ruby2zdy@...> wrote:And as you know, falling is part of (in my

case XC) skiing, at least when you're learning, and when I was learning (10 or

so years ago), I got to where I could not only fall onto snow (which was, that

year anyway, also concrete here (northern Sierra)), but was so used to it that

when I went to learn rollerblading, and fell on real concrete, it was no big

deal. But since I usually managed to land on one of the nice soft cushions God

provided us with back there, and not smack on my tailbone, I'll bet that kind of

torque really set my SI joint up for future unpeasantries.

Ann

Re: what I'm learning about the SI Joint

In chondromalacia treatment , " Ann " <ruby2zdy@f...>

wrote:

>>>>> And " One of the most common causes of problems at the SI joint

is an injury. The injury can come from a direct fall on the

buttocks...

Funny how that works. Around the same time my knee problems started I

spent a weekend trying to learn how to snowboard ( " trying " being the

operative word). I spent a lot of time falling on rock hard S.

Cal " snow. " I remember complaining that they must've just paved the

area over with concrete and painted it white. My sacrum area was sore

for at least 4-5 weeks.

[Guest guest]

The sacroiliac joint. It's where your sacrum (the part of your spine above your

tailbone -- in the sacrum the bones are usually fused together after age 26 or

so, so it's like one bone) meets the pelvis. The connection between the sacrum

and pelvis -- the SI joint itself -- is ligaments, and the bones have articular

cartilage on them so they can slide against each other. The connective tissue

(the joint parts -- the ligaments especially) is not supposed to be very mobile,

but could be too mobile in one person or not enough in someone else. Sometimes

after a pregnancy (during pregnancy, pretty much all pelvic connective tissue

becomes more elastic), women remain too mobile in that joint. Since you have an

SI joint on each side of the sacrum, the pelvis can get kind of out of place

relative to the sacrum and cause you to have a " short leg " , and/or pain that

would spread out to various places -- out into your lower back, your butt, down

your legs, and with neighboring back muscles contracting in sympathy (or fear),

even farther up your back. It's something definitely worth looking into if

you're having a lot of lower body pain. Unfortunately, whereas SI causes used

to be something doctors always looked at for lower back pain, their focus

shifted several decades ago to intervertebral discs and they seem to have

forgotten about the SI joint.

I know it's hard to find doctors who will actually think about you and your

particular problem. I think we've all had problems with that. Unfortunately,

the only thing you can do is keep going from one doc to another until you find

someone who will do what you need. Or if you live in or near a town that

someone else here lives in, and they've found someone they can recommend.

I hope you can find relief. You deserve better.

Ann

Re: what I'm learning about the SI Joint

In chondromalacia treatment , " Ann " <ruby2zdy@f...>

wrote:

>>>>> And " One of the most common causes of problems at the SI joint

is an injury. The injury can come from a direct fall on the

buttocks...

Funny how that works. Around the same time my knee problems started I

spent a weekend trying to learn how to snowboard ( " trying " being the

operative word). I spent a lot of time falling on rock hard S.

Cal " snow. " I remember complaining that they must've just paved the

area over with concrete and painted it white. My sacrum area was sore

for at least 4-5 weeks.

[Guest guest]

thank you for your help ... i will read up on this and look into it ... the only

test they did on my back was x-ray ... when they set up the MRI it was for my

knee and i asked if they could do it of my whole body but they would not ? my

back pain got better when i lost weight ... in 2 years time i lost over 80

pounds ... in my opinion if i had not lost that weight & if i had not done

exercises for legs etc i would not be walking right now ... so anyone on here if

yu are overweight with this problem i would suggest losing the weight for sure

....

Ann I live in Ontario, Canada - near Toronto - a place called Oshawa but i do

not think anyone on this site is near where i am ... 2 of the doctors i have

seen are the best in this area ...

thx .... KeL

Ann <ruby2zdy@...> wrote:

The sacroiliac joint. It's where your sacrum (the part of your spine above your

tailbone -- in the sacrum the bones are usually fused together after age 26 or

so, so it's like one bone) meets the pelvis. The connection between the sacrum

and pelvis -- the SI joint itself -- is ligaments, and the bones have articular

cartilage on them so they can slide against each other. The connective tissue

(the joint parts -- the ligaments especially) is not supposed to be very mobile,

but could be too mobile in one person or not enough in someone else. Sometimes

after a pregnancy (during pregnancy, pretty much all pelvic connective tissue

becomes more elastic), women remain too mobile in that joint. Since you have an

SI joint on each side of the sacrum, the pelvis can get kind of out of place

relative to the sacrum and cause you to have a " short leg " , and/or pain that

would spread out to various places -- out into your lower back, your butt, down

your legs, and with neighboring back muscles

contracting in sympathy (or fear), even farther up your back. It's something

definitely worth looking into if you're having a lot of lower body pain.

Unfortunately, whereas SI causes used to be something doctors always looked at

for lower back pain, their focus shifted several decades ago to intervertebral

discs and they seem to have forgotten about the SI joint.

I know it's hard to find doctors who will actually think about you and your

particular problem. I think we've all had problems with that. Unfortunately,

the only thing you can do is keep going from one doc to another until you find

someone who will do what you need. Or if you live in or near a town that

someone else here lives in, and they've found someone they can recommend.

I hope you can find relief. You deserve better.

Ann

Re: what I'm learning about the SI Joint

In chondromalacia treatment , " Ann " <ruby2zdy@f...>

wrote:

>>>>> And " One of the most common causes of problems at the SI joint

is an injury. The injury can come from a direct fall on the

buttocks...

Funny how that works. Around the same time my knee problems started I

spent a weekend trying to learn how to snowboard ( " trying " being the

operative word). I spent a lot of time falling on rock hard S.

Cal " snow. " I remember complaining that they must've just paved the

area over with concrete and painted it white. My sacrum area was sore

for at least 4-5 weeks.