Diagnosed with Sacroiliitis at 24. Said X-Ray looked fine IDTS

Posted by destiny2099 @destiny2099, Nov 13, 2023

In January 2022, I was carrying groceries inside. I had a big, heavy box of them and set them down for a minute to rest. When I went to lift them again, as I came back up, I heard and felt a loud *pop* on my left side hip area and I couldn't walk straight for almost a month. I never got it looked at, thinking it was only a pulled muscle.

In June 2022 I found out I was pregnant. As I got bigger, the pain came back with a vengeance. I was sent to physical therapy, which did not help. I had my son in January 2023 and the pain went away. I felt great, until September. The pain came back again. It has not gone away. On October 10th, I had finally had enough and went and got x-rays (attached). They said they seen nothing wrong at all. Said it was just SI joint pain. They gave me cyclobenzaprine, a Toradol injection and told me to take ibuprofen/acetaminophen as needed for pain. I was also given a referral for ortho.

I scheduled the appointment with ortho. I was seen and that doctor said he seen nothing wrong with the x-rays either. He did a few "tests" for range of motion etc. He said it was Sacroiliitis and sent me on my way with a referral for physical therapy, again. I had explained to the first doctor and the ortho that physical therapy, the cyclobenzaprine, ibuprofen/acetaminophen, and the Toradol injection did NOT work. That didn't seem to affect his decision.

The attached x ray image with the yellow and red circles, I cropped down to just show my SI joints. The red circle is my left (where all the pain is) and the yellow is my right (where everything is perfectly fine). To me, there definitely seems to be something off with the left joint. I also added the images of my pelvis as a whole, which doesn't look right either, but they said everything's fine. The x-rays are 2 different positions. Flat on my back legs straight out and then flat on my back, left leg drawn up and resting to the side, creating a bit of "resistance" I guess is the right word. Something just doesn't seem right and I know deep down that physical therapy will not help this. They won't do anything until I go and I really don't want to go through 6 weeks of PT for nothing, just so I can have a wider range of treatment options.

Anyone with any knowledge, please let me know what you think of these images. I should note that, yes, I am overweight, I know this. Before I got pregnant I had lost 100lbs. I was 158lbs, my lowest adult weight, but I gained 90 of it back during pregnancy. I am now right around 220-225 and working to lose it all again, but this pain makes it unbearable. I sit here and cry because it hurts so bad. I can hardly pick up my baby without buckling from the pain. I'm only 24, I don't want to live like this the rest of my life.

Thank you for reading this, and thank you for any advice. 🙂

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@destiny2099 you might want to look into PRP, platelet rich plasma. My daughter struggled with SI joint issues for 10 years (including college years) and PRP gave her relief for 7 years. She is going to have it again. It works quickly. She had done years of PT, taping etc. to no avail.

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You need lab tests for arthritic conditions.
If you have access to a rheumatologist you deserve a thorough consultation. Some insurance gatekeepers
require physical therapy before approving an MRI.

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@seniormed

You need lab tests for arthritic conditions.
If you have access to a rheumatologist you deserve a thorough consultation. Some insurance gatekeepers
require physical therapy before approving an MRI.

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I've not even been told, or given the options of doing bloodwork or anything to see if we can bypass the PT. It's in my records that I've done this before for the same hip/leg and it was unsuccessful. I hate insurance gatekeepers. Why would they make me do more PT knowing it was unsuccessful the last time, which was just under a year ago? It just doesn't make sense to me. I know there's an issue there, but they don't seem to want to do anything except put me through the PT and cause more literal pain. It seems like they're basically waiting for it to be so bad that I can't walk anymore before they'll consider alternative options. The ortho gave me a belt, and it helps sometimes, but if I forget to put it on, it's a bad day. I don't want to be prisoner to a belt or pills to get relief. I'm just so exhausted because of the pain. I want to be able to play with my son when he's older instead of having to tell him "I'm sorry buddy, mommy can't get on the floor and play cars with you because it'll make her hip hurt." I feel like I'm just stuck 😕

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@destiny2099

I've not even been told, or given the options of doing bloodwork or anything to see if we can bypass the PT. It's in my records that I've done this before for the same hip/leg and it was unsuccessful. I hate insurance gatekeepers. Why would they make me do more PT knowing it was unsuccessful the last time, which was just under a year ago? It just doesn't make sense to me. I know there's an issue there, but they don't seem to want to do anything except put me through the PT and cause more literal pain. It seems like they're basically waiting for it to be so bad that I can't walk anymore before they'll consider alternative options. The ortho gave me a belt, and it helps sometimes, but if I forget to put it on, it's a bad day. I don't want to be prisoner to a belt or pills to get relief. I'm just so exhausted because of the pain. I want to be able to play with my son when he's older instead of having to tell him "I'm sorry buddy, mommy can't get on the floor and play cars with you because it'll make her hip hurt." I feel like I'm just stuck 😕

Jump to this post

I should also note that, starting when I was about 15, I started having issues with my left knee. It hurt to move it, there's massive fluid build up and that remains to this day. I was given a brace, and PT. Then in 2019 my right knee had pain worse than the left did, I got it looked at, x-ray and MRI I believe, nothing of concern noted. For both knees they just said the patella is misaligned and the cartilage has degraded because of it. I was able to access their Patient Portal last year (I didn't know they had one until then.) I pulled up the images and read the reports for my right knee. The radiologists report mentioned there were signs of osteoarthritis, but the actual doctor never mentioned that to me. If I have it in my knee, wouldn't that make me more susceptible to having it other places? I can't help by feel like the doctors here are prolonging things to get more money in the long run. I live in an area that has an entire section of the city dedicated to medical facilities, there's tons of doctors and specialists but it seems like they give sub par care and skip over things.

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