Dear Katyi. Welcome to our little group. So glad you
found us. We can all relate to your feelings after a
year of constant pain. Since you can't choose your
doctor or treatment, I can understand if you feel you
may not be getting the right treatment because the
pain continues.

But I have to tell you that I'm impressed by the level
of knowledge shown by your doctors. Many people go
years with SI dysfunction & pelvis muscles unbalanced,
because their doctors are clueless.

First, I'm not a doctor or PT. I'm just a patient like
you, but I've been reading this posts for five years.
Two things jump out at me - you have had lots of PT
that hasn't worked and Trigger Point Therapy has
removed the SI pain. So I think you might benefit from
a different type of PT - that is more advanced manual
bodywork techniques. And most PTs don't have this
training.(I'm guessing you have been getting
Piriformis stretching and abdominal strengthening
exercises in PT with maybe a little ultrasound,
right??)

I think the DO intern & chiro were on the right track.
Even though your pelvic muscles are balanced, you
still have trigger points and other restrictions in
the tissues within the pelvis that lead to the
constant pain. Given the SI pain disappeared in one
month of treatment, I would say you are a good
candidate for other types of bodywork.

The key is finding a therapist with the right skills
for your problem. This is not an easy task, even for
civilians. You might start by asking your current PT
if he/she knows of any other PTs on base, who can do
myofascial release therapy or have taken classes in
the techniques of Frank Lowen, Sharon
Weiselfish-Giammatteo, Stanley Paris, or Ola Grimsby.
Myofascial release therapy is sort of the minimum you
should be getting. And the experience level &
training of the therapist is critical to the outcome
success with this kind of thing.

If there is another PT who can do more soft tissue
manual techniques, maybe you could ask your PT to
transfer you to the other PT???? I don't know - just
an idea.

Rather than spending extra money on a massage
therapist, you might consider saving up & paying for
private PT with someone who specializes in the above
techniques. There is a clinic in Washington, DC (I
don't know is that is close enough for you) See
http://www.centerimt.com/location.asp?siteno=26
Or give them a call and ask if they can recommend
anyone in your area.

I wouldn't get your hopes up that the flouroscopy
cortisone shot will work any better than then last
shot. Pain Management people are very limited in what
they can do for Piriformis Syndrome. They either give
you drugs that don't work for your pain or they give
injections, which generally don't work either. So to
any degree possible, I would delay making appointments
with them. Because you are not at that last ditch,
desperate stage where there is nothing else left to
try but Pain Mgmt.

In my opinion, Pain Mgmt clinics are a rabbit hole of
drugs that impair you mentally and don't help with
either pain or function. As yet, no one here has been
helped by pain Mgmt techniques. Saddenly though, most
people here have not been helped by anything. But I am
optimisstic for you -encouraged by your Trigger point
results and the fact, you have only had this problem
for one year. There is still hope.

I hope this helps or at least lifts your spirits. Good
luck, Mary



________________________________________________________________________________\
____
Need a vacation? Get great deals
to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.
http://travel.yahoo.com/