Injuries and RehabTell us where it hurts! Do a quick search before asking about your shoulder injury to make sure your question hasn't already been answered (about 50 times), and read the sticky post first.
Long long time ago. Probably been 7 years since I first remember noticing it.
2. What were you doing at the time? Or did the pain come on gradually over time?
Gradually.
3. Where, anatomically, is the pain?
Lower body, spreading from my feet.
4. What does the pain feel like? Sharp? Dull? Aching? Stabbing? Shooting?
Like when your hand falls asleep, when it happens.
5. Is the pain constant, or intermittent, or only on certain motions?
Only when standing/walking for extended periods of time, most especially when I'm tired.
6. What motions make your pain worse?
Not sitting or lying down.
7. What, if anything, makes your pain better?
If I sit for a few minutes it's all better.
8. Does your pain radiate to any other part of your body?
Gradually up from my feet to probably knees or so. Only a few times has it gone above my knees.
9. What things could you do before, that you cannot do now because of your injury?
Regularly take evening walks.
10. What is your main concern regarding the pain and its consequences?
I'm paranoid there's something really bad going on.
11. Have you ever injured that part of your body before? If so, how?
Not really. Some low back spasms are probably the closest thing.
12. Is your pain getting worse over time? And if so, how much worse over what time period?
Worse when I don't workout as much and weigh more.
I've seen a chrio for this, but my BS detector kept going off, despite the explanations actually making some sense to me. I was hoping for a second opinion. I haven't seen a doc because it didn't really seem severe enough to.
The chiro basically says my hips are slightly tilted to my left and torqued a bit back to the right. I had my first adjustment today and it actually feels better.. my low back is less tight but I have no clue if it's just the fact that I spent 10 minutes on an automatic massage table.
It sounds like sciatica, which can be caused by several factors. Have you had your piriformis checked? Often this muscle will constrict the sciatic nerve and cause the types of symptoms you describe.
Otto,
Is this numbness, like a sock, meaning all over? Or is it in a strip like along one part of the lower leg?
When you touch it, does it feel numb?
Did the chiro take x-rays?
Did he/she test your reflexes? (ankle, knee)
Have Aoife look at you standing relaxed in the position in which it occurs ... if she looks at your ASIS (the bone that sticks out in the front of your hip ... ie at the top of the "penis line") and your pubic bone, are they in a vertical line or is one anterior to the other?
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
Otto,
Is this numbness, like a sock, meaning all over? Or is it in a strip like along one part of the lower leg?
All over. Feels like dead weight, but I can move it just fine, still.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UConnJulie
When you touch it, does it feel numb?
Um... I think so. I'll make sure the next time it happens.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UConnJulie
Did the chiro take x-rays?
Did he/she test your reflexes? (ankle, knee)
Yes on both counts.
Good on reflexes. Also said good blood flow to the toes.
After looking at the xrays he said that my right hip was 2mm lower than the other, and that the only vertebra that didn't look perfect was the last one... L1 (they're numbered bottom to top, right?)... which seems contrary to the usual case for sciatica, excepting if it is the piriformis (can you tell I read Wikipedia?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by UConnJulie
Have Aoife look at you standing relaxed in the position in which it occurs ... if she looks at your ASIS (the bone that sticks out in the front of your hip ... ie at the top of the "penis line") and your pubic bone, are they in a vertical line or is one anterior to the other?
This is something the chiro checked for. Aoife just helped me check and confirmed.
Right side hip is lower and back than the left, so basically torqued a little.
Interesting side note, when it does happen, making sure to fire my glutes well does tend to help. I can align my hips well if I make a concerted effort to fire my right glute.
Donno if it matters, but I've repeatedly sprained my left ankle. Not in a while though.
A couple years ago I tore my right hamstring and my left quad. I remember asking the doc if there was maybe a rotational imbalance. He kinda shrugged. That's partly why what the chiro says makes so much sense... its' just that the DVDs they made me watch really set of my BS detector.
Oh and my right hip pops a couple times a day when I bend over to pick stuff up.
Definitely sounds like some sort of pelvic torsion probably from muscle imbalance (tight/not firing/whatever) ... and that would have an impact on the lowest lumbar vertebra (L5 for future reference). The numbness ... bilateral ... suggests a central cause (ie if it were one piriformis, it would be compressing a peripheral nerve and would cause paresthesias only on that side, not both) so that would be my guess for a culprit. Sort of uncommon to have extrasegmental (ie no specific pattern) numbness bilaterally like that without anything significant on x-ray like a spondylolisthesis. But cool that you don't.
Is he planning on fixing the muscle imbalance too (though ART and exercise) or just do the manipulations?
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
Sorry ... :blush: ... when I get into PT-mode it just flows out!!
Hmmm ... that would get my BS-radar going too ... not that they aren't necessary, but I don't get how you would know in advance that it would take that many. Some people (in my experience) "correct" and "stay corrected" after 1 or 2 manipulations ... some take more. But I never know ahead of time ... it's sort of a manipulate and see how it goes sort of thing. And most of the time manipulations aren't needed ... proper corrective exercise does the trick.
But whatever ... ask him if he plans to show you any exercises to get the not-firing muscles working again and to "repair" the muscles which had been torn (and are now likely scarred a bit short).
If not, let me know, and we'll work to get you on the right path in that aspect!
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
I'm supposed to do this 3x a day, flexion and extension 5x (look up, look down), side bend 5x, sit and twist 5x. Then spinal molding once a day (lie on a towel under my back and under my neck). Those didn't seem like they would target hip imbalances, tho.
I'll be sure to mention the torn muscles Friday. I had forgotten at the time. Sometimes it's hard to know which is a cause and which is a side effect... I tore those muscles long after I'd been having the numbness.
Oh really ... hmmm ... then I'm still surprised that you don't have a spondylolisthesis or something else going on (like a space-occupying lesion or stenosis or something) just based upon the distribution of the numbness.
See what he says ... remain skeptical ...and keep me posted!!
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
spondylolisthesis or something else going on (like a space-occupying lesion or stenosis or something)
Maybe I'm just not making the words connect right... they're a fan of "subluxation complex" which sounds like "blah blah blah tech tech tech have we convinced you, yet" to my ears.
So "spondylolisthesis", I'm not sure I'm quite getting. I5 is a little out of whack relative to I4, if that's what you mean, then yeah there's something there.
Yes, but a chiropracter's definition of subluxation is any vertebra that is "out of place". Most allopathic physicians don't see these subluxations as anything other than positional variations of normal.
(correct me if I'm wrong please Russ!)
Whereas to the medical community at large a subluxation is a partial dislocation.
A spondylolisthesis is where the vertebra above is slipping forward on the vertebra below ... usually with structural deformities/abnormalities at the facet joints (congential/traumatic/degenera tive).
It would be good to ask him to clarify ... is what he's seeing a spondylolisthesis?
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
It's not cheap but it's not expensive. I'm giving him 2 at least next week.
Interestingly, the number of sessions they had in their plan is about 3 fewer than my insurance will cover for the year. Things that make me go 'hmmmm'.
Well ... then it could just be tight hips causing the numbness (in a percentage of the population, the sciatic nerve passes through the middle of the piriformis). Get that lacrosse ball in there and do the half-pigeon stretch ...
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
I have a tennis ball for it, but couldn't do anything but the foam roll slightly off to the side. That was brutal enough with the tennis ball getting right in there.
I did something like the pigeon stretch from Core Performance Essentials. Just not bringing the back leg up at all.. not sure I could get it up off the ground anyway, had I tried.
That's pigeon prep. Bringing up the back leg helps to stretch the back quad, but doesn't really do anything for the rest of you. The leg forward stretches the glute/outer hip, and if you don't lean forward like you did but stay upright you get hip flexor stretching as well. The leg up in back would increase the psoas stretch and add in quad stretching.
Been to the chiro a few times. I feel good afterward, he does an adjustment, some ART on my tears and my piriformis (piriformii?). It doesn't take long to seize back up, though. Had an appointment this morning and I was already numbing up this evening walking around for a few minutes in Walgreens.
That said, I'm pretty sure I'm one of the 15% that has the nerve through the piriformis, as when I do that stretch or foam roll it, the numbness goes away much faster than if I just sit or lie down
So verdict is, chiro feels good and is helping some, but not really solving the problem.
I've been focusing on foam rolling and stretching a couple times a day.
What's weird is that I had been fine in the recent past. Able to walk/run 5K and so on. I don't know what's really changed other than gaining a bit of weight (say 10-15 pounds)... I've kept generally the same strength levels.
So any thoughts on what the causes could be? Assuming the symptom more directly is a spasming/tight piriforms/other lower body muscles?
Forgot one interesting detail... after today's chiro/ART session I was feeling queasy, like after a hard lift or run, like there was lactic acid flushing out of my system. Not bad, just kinda threw me as I haven't lifted in a few days.
Hmm ... not sure why recently ... or what changed recently. No way really to know although it would be good for future prevention. Sometimes it's not one thing, but rather a cascade effect ... in other words, your body doesn't mind if it is tight say at 75%, but at 76% you start to get symptoms.
Weird on the flush sensation ...
__________________
Life's a Journey ... Enjoy the Ride!
Hips and lower body numbness
Linear Mode
