Howdy all,
I've been lucky enough to this point not to have to deal with a major flare. My streak just stopped. My left SI is not cooperating. Tried throwing some Tramadol at it. Nope. Put my TENS on for a couple hours yesterday. Another nope. Sat in the whirlpool for about an hour with no luck. I'm at work right now as I'm a one-mail IS department. Any suggestions for later?
Ouch--sorry, Sherm. I don't have anything for you except maybe good rest and perhaps anti-inflammatory meds? Ugh. Feel better.
Been taking Meloxicam at the max dose for a year. Unfortunately I can't rest at work.
I hear you about not resting at work. I'm typing with two newly acquired wrist braces. Is standing easier than sitting?
Well, being in IT makes this a difficult issue. I have to get up, walk to another location, sit at the users desk, solve the problem, get up, either move on to the next issue or go back to my office. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Etc.
Is there any way you can apply heat to your back? There are thermacare and other heat patches that attach to the inside of your clothing that can be helpful. Heat helps me a great deal with SI flares.
I shift a lot when I'm at work, when I have to be sitting. I'm finding that the PT is helping considerably, but it could just be a flare subsiding too.
Last week, the physical therapist put TENS and a heat pack on my back after some strategic stretching, and that was the only time I felt like I could relax in the past three weeks. I hope your flare subsides, Sherm! Mine is just beginning to.
I'm in your same boat. Getting an MRI next week because we don't know exactly what it is. The therapist thinks it's my SI joint. I had never experienced such terrible pain in my entire life. It's a lot better now than 2 weeks , but still something wrong with pain now radiating in a bunch of directions. Nym and Rosen are right--heat does help. I'm able to use my heating pad at work, and ice packs off and on.
I hope you get it figured out!
I have a pain doctor (anesthesiologist) who treats all my pain issues. For my SI joints, he does steroid injections into them. I can go anywhere from 5-6 months to a year and a half before it flares again badly enough that I need more injections. I do all the stretching prescribed and take my biologics and DMARDS. It just gets out of control occasionally. If you can find a good pain dr, I recommend it. Mine also does a procedure to burn away the pain sensing nerves that are telling me how much my low back and coccyx hurts with inflammation and degenerative process. It doesn’t stop all of the pain, but it helps quite a bit.
I found my pain doctor by just looking it up as a specialty under my insurance. That way I was avoiding some of the “pill mills” that don’t want to do legit business. My rheumy at the time said that I “could” go see a pain doctor, but they wouldn’t be able to do much more for me. He was WRONG! (He also ignored my rising labs until I had a SED rate of 100! I changed rheumies, needless to say.) I highly recommend looking into a pain doctor for the issues like SI joints that won’t respond to the usual treatment you are getting.
The place I go to for P.T. has a doctor who does those injections. The name of the place is Interventional Pain and Physical Medicine Clinic. They do injections, etc., plus p.t., chiropractic, everything but inpatient surgery. They wouldn't recommend surgery, but they highly recommend the injections and burning of the nerves, etc., nobody has been able to talk me into anything like that yet. Once we see the MRI, I will go from there. The first day my back started hurting really bad, the doctor saw me and said he could do an injection right away. That would be a big decision for me. We all know I proceed with caution, even if everybody's assuring me things will get better--that's why it took me so long to start a biologic.
I sent this message to Grandma J earlier today. This is what I do to get some relief, along with pain medication and NSAIDS. Hope it helps.
So sorry to hear you are having such a hard time with your back. I too have lots of back issues in the sacroiliac region and there are three really simple stretching exercises the physical therapist taught me that you can do whenever you want and it truly truly does help and gets rid of the pain. One stretch is called the Angry Cow Scary Cat. You get on your hands and knees with them spread apart just a bit (easiest to do on your bed so it doesn't hurt your knees or getting down on the floor). Then you tuck in your head towards your belly and tuck in your butt towards your belly at the same time. Hold it until you feel the ache loosen, then bring your head up and stretched back toward your butt and your butt up stretched toward your head. Again hold it until you feel the ache loosen. I usually do three in a row of each and it loosens it all up. Here is a link with a picture of the stretch: https://www.google.com/search?q=Angry+cow+scary+cat+exercise&bi...
Now, the other exercise done one way is a sciatica stretch (the nerve that goes down your butt into your leg) and the opposite way is a psoas muscle stretch (the muscle that runs around your lower back and lower front, which includes the hip). So for these you sit on the edge of a chair and bring one leg up and cross it over the other. Put one hand on your ankle pushing down and one hand on your knee pulling up as you push the other hand down. Sit as straight as you can during this. This is the psoas muscle release. Now for the sciatica muscle release you are in the same position, but your hand on your ankle is going to pull up and the hand on your knee is going to push down. Again, I do these in reps of three. These stretches you can do as much as you want and the lovely part is not only does it loosen these areas up when you hurt, but it also strengthens them so you hurt yourself less. Here is a link for a picture of the sciatica and psoas muscle stretch: https://www.google.com/search?q=sciatica+stretch+with+crossed+knees...
So I hope these help you. I have ankylosing spondylitis and my lower back was so very bad. Now it's the least of my problems, but when it's flared up, I just do these stretches and it helps tremendously. Good luck Grandma J. Basset momma
Things that have helped me when my SI joints kick it into overtime.
Hot baths. Now personally, for me at least a bath is way better than a whirlpool or jacuzzi tub. I always feel pretty beat up after going in any of the latter, especially if I have some pretty bad active inflammation. I guess it’s like going for a massage when I have bad inflammation. It seems to do more harm than good.
Stretching
More hot baths
Walking
Using an arthritis cream like tiger balm arthritis cream. I cannot give this product enough props.
The cream in conjunction with a heating pad (and pain killers) is the only way I could sleep at night!
Using tylonal with an NSAID, they really don’t do a lot, but together they at least do something for me.
I cannot stress how important it is to keep moving and stretching is. And hot baths, honestly some days I take my iPad into the bathroom, and watch netflix all day long. Yes it’s easier when you don’t work, but it can make for a great few hours.
I really hope you state feeling better soon. SI pain is a huge pain in the butt!!
I should say that I don’t do the injections until it gets bad enough that I am falling regularly. The SI inflammation gets bad enough that my thighs are weak and my legs get a dead feeling (from myelopathy). As I said, I do stretches daily for that area and others including legs and neck. The falling, though, is a sign that none of it is enough and we need to do a procedure. Bassett Mama’s stretches are two of the ones I use. I also drape myself over an exercise ball face down so that it is under my stomach and my hips lean against it. It gives a huge stretch to the SI region. Don’t do it too long the fist time, though. You don’t realize how extreme the stretch is until an hour or so later. If you do it too long on your first time, the next day is really sore.
Btw Bassett Mama, I love the name. I use min pin mom as my name on some other sites. 
Thanks Dana. I was wondering if there was another stretch that you could do draping yourself over something. Now I know. I'll have to get an exercise ball and try that one too. Nothing better than stretching that area out. I have found if I do these faithfully, I have far and few between flares of intense SI pain. Thanks for sharing. :-)
Dana said:
I should say that I don't do the injections until it gets bad enough that I am falling regularly. The SI inflammation gets bad enough that my thighs are weak and my legs get a dead feeling (from myelopathy). As I said, I do stretches daily for that area and others including legs and neck. The falling, though, is a sign that none of it is enough and we need to do a procedure. Bassett Mama's stretches are two of the ones I use. I also drape myself over an exercise ball face down so that it is under my stomach and my hips lean against it. It gives a huge stretch to the SI region. Don't do it too long the fist time, though. You don't realize how extreme the stretch is until an hour or so later. If you do it too long on your first time, the next day is *really* sore.
Btw Bassett Mama, I love the name. I use min pin mom as my name on some other sites. :-)
Thanks for all of the help, folks. Decided to go to our local pain clinic. Problem is, we are in a small Wisconsin town and I can't get in until 9/29. Flare will probably be over by then......