Hello everyone. My name is Aimee, I'm 35 years old and I have 2 daughters, ages 16 and 4. I have been suffering with back pain of one sort or another since 2000. It eventually caused me to lose my job that I loved in finance. Initially it turned out that I have Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction. We believe that when I gave birth to my first daughter, who was 10 1/2 pounds and 22" long, that I ripped open my left SI joint. So a joint that is supposed to have essentially no movement, is very wobbly for me and causes an excruciating amount of pain. After hunting down a doctor that actually did SI joint injections, we tried 5 rounds of plain steroid injections under x-ray. Those did not help. He finally suggested that we could try something called "Sclerosing Injections". At this point I was in so much pain that I was willing to give anything a try. To explain a Sclerosing Injection, the doctor takes a very large needle, fills it with a saline solution, and under x-ray, injects it into the joint. There are NO diagnostic tests to prove or disprove SI joint dysfunction. The Dr. said that they determine it by how the needle feels going into the joint (normal joint the needle feels like going through tough leather, my joint felt like going through a wet sponge) and the other determining factor is by how my fluid the joint actually holds (he said that I win the award for having the joint that holds the most fluid he's ever seen in his entire career). We (all of my Dr's) seem to concur that my injury to this left SI joint was from when I gave birth to my first daughter. My husband (at the time) was in the Air Force, so I had to have her on base. They refused to do a c-section and let me suffer trying to push out this baby the size of a 3 month old. They think that the joint ripped open and has not and will not go back to normal. The purpose of injecting the SI joint with saline is for the body's natural defense mechanisms to kick in a create scar tissue in the joint. We did 3 rounds of that and lo and behold, it created enough scar tissue to stabilize the joint and my pain was gone. Until that is, that I was in my 7th month of my pregnancy of my now 4 year old daughter. I have since has to go on public assistance, because I cannot work, and currently have Medicaid as my insurance. There in only 1 doctor in the state of Oklahoma that does this procedure and he doesn't take Medicaid. Also after I had my second daughter, my primary care doctor said that I shouldn't be having as much pain in my lower back, not the SI pain, that I was and sent me for an MRI. Just my luck, it showed that I had Degenerative Disc Disease of the Lumbar Spine. All of the discs are compeltely dried out and are bulging significantly. On June 28, 2006, my L4-5 disc ruptured, I lost all control of my bodily functions. I went immediately to my surgeons office at 4:50pm on a Thursday evening and at 5am Friday morning I was having an emergency Laminectomy. To this day, I continue to have lumbar pain and SI pain. They've sent me to a Pain Management Doctor and I get regular epidural steroid injection, which help enough for me to get them. I was hoping that by putting my story out there, that somone on this site could possibly know the name of any doctors who do "Sacro-iliac Joint Sclerosing Injections" That was the only prodecure that alleviated my symptoms for years. I guess I'm also looking for support and to share stories with other sufferers, because it is a very hard thing to explain to friends and family and even harder for them to understand. I would just like to know how you others deal with your back pain and other methods that you've tried and have worked. My best wishes to all of you and wishes of great health,
