Still Fighting...

A lot has happened in the past year while the net result is about the same--but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

It has been almost a year since I last wrote and that was an update on the back injury I was fighting. I eventually got healed up enough that I had resumed all the things I was wanting to do. There was still a tweak every now and then, however, it wasn’t slowing me down. Looking back that should have been a signal I listened to with more force.

In May, I noticed after some medium-heavy sumo deadlifts that my left glute was abnormally tight. It was kind of like a cramp sensation but more focused and tighter and not all the time. Just when I turned in certain positions, rolled over in bed, or stood still for more than a few minutes.

Eventually during the summer, I started experiencing numbness in my left foot and tingling up and down my lower left leg when I stood for more than a few minutes. The pain in the glute was still present.

My PT suggested it was Piriformis Syndrome however, it was presenting slightly different than typical. I could sit for many many hours no problem. It was only standing that could bring on the pain.

We tried different modalities at PT (the best of which is dry needling with electric stimulation), I got some deep tissue massage, I purchased and used a Marc Pro Plus (and still do). All of these seem to help calm things down a bit but they are providing only temporary relief.

At the end of August, I saw one orthopedist who diagnosed me with stenosis at L4/L5 and prescribed me some anti-inflammatories that I had told him I was allergic to but insisted that I should take them anyway. I did not. I wasn’t very happy with this doctor as he didn’t seem to listen to my history, offer any solutions, and generally didn’t seem interested in helping. He even dismissed the pain in my glute as phantom as if I were making it up!

This past week, I saw an orthopedist who also has had a spine fellowship and it was a much better experience. He took the time to listen to my history, examined me, asked me my goals, gave me a steroid shot to calm down inflammation in my glute, and ordered an MRI. I had the MRI on Thursday and will meet with him on Monday to discuss results. There is a probability that I have a minor disc bulge and/or bone spur that either itself is putting pressure on the nerve (or what he thinks might be more likely, is causing inflammation that is causing the nerve to be slightly pinched). If this is the case, we plan to do an epidural shot to address the inflammation. He said that might be all that I need for the body to fully recover.

Just in the days since the steroid injection, I’ve been feeling a lot better. I’ve had a few days with no pain and no numbness but it has come and gone, as well. At this point, I suspect the nerve pinching is happening closer to L4/L5 and that’s causing the pain in the piriformis.

We will see.