OT- scheduled for SI joint pins June 12th 2013

I have had trouble with my low back/hips area for a few years.  Last summer after PT, chiropractic and pain clinic consults including multiple SI joint injections (ouch), I finally got a diagnosis of it being my SI joints causing this pain.  I was hoping the weight loss would make it better, the orthopedic surgeon told me it would not help but I was still hoping he was wrong.  Well he was right it still hurts after losing 100 lbs and I am going to get the most painful side fixed next month.  3 triangular pins will be placed in my joint.  They go in from the side of my hip and under the glute muscle to reach it.  No/limited weight bearing for 6-8 weeks with a walker or crutches.  Then I have to do the other side later.  This scares me after becoming active with this new lifestyle.  Any advise, have you been off your exercise for medical reasons before?   Did you return to exercise and how much strength did you lose?   Did you gain any weight during recovery?  Just looking for some reassurance and/or others experiences.

THANKS,  Candy

(((((Candy)))), sorry you are facing this. Do a couple of things...make sure you are taking all the vitamins you can (you will have to discontinue one or so ahead of surgery due to the risk of bleeding) but stay on top of the rest! Also UP your protein...if at 100, go for 150 grams from now til surgery and after...it will help you heal.

Price had both knees replaced after WLS so she might be of help on other aspects.

Liz

Thanks, good idea.  I will start adding in a second shake daily.

No real advice on staying active.  My foot surgery pretty much made me screech to a halt.  Watch your diet diligently and you`ll come through fine.

Who`s your Doctor doing the surgery?

Thanks, surgeon is Dr Groseclose- Great Lakes orthopedics

Wow--this sounds so extreme. I'm sorry you are in this position. I would HATE to have some kind of surgery right now that keeps me from working out. I have busted my butt to get here.

That being said, I've been in your shoes for about 20 years. Scoliosis and a spinal fusion as a kid, I was athletic and fine for a long time but about 20 years ago, my low back and joints started giving me problems. I was 150 lbs when it started, so I knew that losing weight might not fix it. Now at almost 50 and having lost 80+ pounds, I still have issues (deg disk disease, arthritis, etc). I've seen a variety of practioners over the years, with varying levels of success. My right SI joint has bothered me so much at times I've just felt hopeless. So I know how you feel. I usually feel like my hips, low back, SI joins are one big cinder block of stiffness, and jolts of sharp pain. Every time I stand up, I'm hunched over like an old man and have to make a concerted effort just to loosen up my lower back and stand up straight. It sucks.

One practioner that has helped immensely is someone trained in Feldenkrais movement. It's woo-woo to me, I don't understand it, but it's had a huge benefit for me. It somehow gets my brain to undo patterns that my body has been stuck in for various reasons--protecting a joint, protecting some part of me from pain, etc - that at one point kept me from turning to the right or sleeping on my left side for years because of the stiffness and pain and discomfort. That's all fixed now. That, along with massage, has helped a lot. Now that I have several inches less of fat and skin, my LMT can really get in there and stretch my psoas muscle (connected to the SI joint) and break up some old scar tissue and really release a lot of the facia deep in there. She also massages and stretches my hip flexors and IT band. I'm guessing that you've exhausted these possibilities before you decided to get surgery. I know it can be expensive but I have to tell you--I haven't gotten a massage since prior to surgery 6 months ago. When I first started working out at month 3, my back felt suddenly GREAT! I was so excited. But alas, after a coupla months, it got back to "normal" and the last coupla weeks it's hurt so bad I've been insane. So I got a massage last Friday and WOW! What a difference! This is deep tissue, really deep massage. I've had a great week and plan on getting massage every week for a few weeks (tapering off to once a month maybe) in hopes it keeps the non-pain and good feelings going. It helps so much because now I can perform regular stretches (without pain) and they actually work. I don't know your particular issues, but for me, the psoas and hip flexor are pulling on my SI joint(s) causing all of that pain.

Anyhow, I'm rambling. This is a huge, all-consuming issue for me as well so I'm pretty passionate about it. I don't want to dissuade you from surgery, just wanted to share my experience in case it helps. And you may want to start gathering exercise routines from on line or from a trainer or someone--things you might be able to do post-surgery even though you cannot lift any weight. Things that will help you stay limber and toned until you can lift weight again, even if it's sitting in a chair doing crunches or 100 bicep curls with a 2-lb weight.

Good luck--let us know how it goes.

Thanks for your experience.   I have had massage as part of PT in the past and it does help short term.   I am going to ask the surgeon if I can get PT after to help show me things I can do to improve strength without hurting my recovery. 

Hi again--I would start looking myself on line etc, sometimes I've found that PT isn't the greatest, or is only a part of what I need to do. Seems each of these practioners (chiro, LMT, PT, various others) and gym guys have different training, of course, so I take pieces and parts from all of them to keep me managing my pain. I'm sure you know what I mean :)

Please keep me informed as to how it goes, obviously I'm very interested in the results of this kind of surgery. Good luck to you.

Yea, I know what you mean.  I have been around the world trying to figure out this pain :)  PCP, PT, Chiropractic, massage, pain clinic, injections and orthopedic surgeon in the last few years.  I will send you a friend request  thanks

I had injections years ago. I drank some radioactive stuff and had a "bone scan" which I now think was in an MRI machine or something similar....there was a big bright dot on one my lower-back facet joints. So I got injections there. The first one was a miracle, I had no idea how much pain I'd been living with and how it affected me every minute of every day (grumpy, didn't want to do things, couldn't stand up in costco on the cement floor for more than 5 minutes without grumping at my wife, etc). So I got those injections now and then, probably every six months or so, but after the first one they were hit-or-miss as far as success went, and length of success. Eventually I decided that the ordeal of going downtown, having to take a friend with me to drive, the anxiety and passing-out feeling I got during the injections...wasn't worth it. I'm super grateful that at least for now, I'm able to manage it. I think the wls surgery and getting the weight off and hiring a personal trainer (and changing my entire life) has helped a lot, mostly mentally because now I am dedicated more than ever to the stretching I need to do, and keeping up with massages and such instead of waiting until I'm dying before I break down and go get a massage or call my Feldendrais guy. Anyhow, I could go on forever. But this is about YOU. I hope it goes well for you. I just started reading around on line and am finding this I-FUSE thing. Is that what you are getting? Looks like it has a pretty good success rate. It just seems super-scarey to me to get other things fused because I just think "what other part of my body will then try to compensate, and probably cause yet MORE problems?" Do you worry about that? Or do you know that this doesn't happen with this surgery?