Things were going so well, and then, inevitably, I took a giant step back. Will this ever end??? Two weekends ago, I noticed a sharp pain right at my SI joint that would come and go. It wasn’t really that bad, but it gradually got worse from a Friday to a Tuesday. Then that Wednesday (last Wednesday), it got so bad that I couldn’t sit at my desk at work because the pain was so bad. I had to lay on the floor with my computer to get any work done.
Fortunately, I had a PT appointment that day. The verdict was that my pelvic bone was slightly forward (out of place), and my tail bone was messed up as well. I was so disheartened to hear that I had pelvic bone issues again since it’s been in place since at least November. My PT promised it wasn’t that bad, though. And she was able to put everything back in place. She told me to wear my SI belt for a few days to promote everything staying in place. She also told me no running until I can sit without pain.
Now, 5 days later, I’m still wearing the belt. Yesterday afternoon I took it off and was able to sit pain-free. Granted, I wasn’t sitting for long periods of time. Last night, about halfway through the night, I got up to let the dog out and decided to try sleeping (just on my back) without the belt. But as soon as I took the belt off, my butt and leg started hurting. So I put the belt back on. Still not better. Fortunately some ibuprofen did the trick, and I was able to fall asleep again.
Today at work the pain was moderate. I didn’t have to lay on the floor, thankfully, but I did feel pain down my IT band and in my sacrotuberous ligament. I’ve also felt a bit of lower back pain, which my PT says is due to my lower vertebrae twisting, which is, in turn, due to my tail bone twisting. Awesome. Fortunately, I don’t feel the sharp pain in my SI joint nearly as often or as intensely, but it’s also not totally gone.
To the best of my knowledge, my pelvic bone is still in the right place. It’s definitely not rotated up or down, and it’s not obviously pushed forward. But it could be a little forward, depending on how nit-picky you are when looking at it.
So yes, very frustrating. I can’t run, and I can’t bike. I don’t really want to swim 5 days a week, but I may have no choice. I’m still taking it day-by-day and will continue to do so all of this week. My next PT appointment is on Friday.
I guess, as a silver lining, I don’t think this was caused by my increase in running distance. I guess it could be, but it seems unlikely. And I had upped my distance to 3.6 miles without pain in my calf. So that’s good. Hopefully this week off will help everything settle in the right place, and I’ll be able to jump right back in to running at my current mileage next week.
The thing that is plaguing me is wondering what caused this setback. There are several possible causes: 1) I’ve started teaching myself how to do flip turns in the pool, 2) I skied telemark two weekends ago (but wore the belt), and 3) I started biking again. It seems that the most likely culprit is the biking. That’s what initially caused the SI issue in the first place. Telemark could’ve done it, but I was on groomers the whole time, wearing the belt, and made sure to keep my stance tight and not too spread out. I guess flip turns could do it, but since you start your flip using forward momentum from swimming (as opposed to pushing off the bottom of the pool like when doing a somersault), you only push off the side of the pool into a straight line, which I do with non-flip turns as well. I guess it’s possible that the act of curling into a ball puts too much pressure on the SI joint. Maybe I’ll give up on flip turns for awhile and see if there’s any improvement.
My PT also suggested that my sleeping positions could be the problem. It turns out that my favorite sleeping position is not good for my SI joint. So I’ve been avoiding that position and taking other precautions that the PT suggested to keep everything in place. And I’m wearing the belt. But I’m just not sure that this is the issue. I’ve been sleeping in the “forbidden” position for at least the past 2 1/2 months, and I haven’t had any issues. It doesn’t seem like it would be do detrimental all of a sudden.
So yes, very frustrating, but I’m trying to stay positive. Part of what’s annoying is that my initial injury (my calf) seems to be totally fine now. If only my SI would follow suit….
