Severe SI arthritis. I take strong meds to sit. Is sitting I struggle to do harmful longterm?
I have severe sacroiliac arthritis due to complex of issues from car wreck 1972. Sitting is the worst. Fortunately my job is not all sitting but I require morphine and lyrica to work. I cannot take Nsaids except on occasion due to gi and renal side effects. Aside from the pain is all this sitting damaging or hastening degeneration? I use the best cushion I know of, lay down in the car at lunch, etc..Once I'm home on my back for awhile pain med intake often stops. I live alone and work very hard. I feel like I crawl home sometimes I'm also into complementary treatments and realize that keeping my attitude and spirit up is essential. I've lived with pain that is low grade and bearable w/o meds all my adult life until 2006.
I would like to talk with other sitting disabled people as I feel a bit isolated I look fine no one would know what I've been through or that going to movie impossible although I just found theater whose arms go up allowing me to lie down. I also am very grateful for what I can do. Thank goodness I like to read and watch videos. Thanks to any that read my first and very long post.
I would not say that sitting is going to hasten or accelerate the SI joint degeneration. Using a good cushion with a sacral cut out would be the most comfortable for sitting. Having lived with this pain for so long you probably know about the surgeries that fuse the SI joints which can relieve SI pain. I am sure you also know the importance of the pelvic floor muscle exercises as well (like Kegel exercises) to help to support the SI joints. These are just a few things that came to my mind after reading your question.
I encourage you to stay as active as possible because disability is really a state of mind that can lead to depression.
Dr. Christina Lasich, MD
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I too was in a car accident that has caused me non-stop pain with my Sacroiliac joint on my left side. I was told by the physical therapist that both my interior and exterior SJ are involved. I'm not an anatomy major so I don't know exactly what that means. I only know that I have had non-stop pain since then. My car accident was in 2001. My work is tech support so I do a lot of sitting during the day. And I feel like I am 85 years old evertime I try to stand up after sitting. I have many other health problems and feel like my life is always one painful day after another. But this is by far my worse problem. I have talked to my Dr. about it before and get "sounds like you have arthritis", go see this physcial therapist. But the physical Therapist does not ever seem to help and it gets expensive with 3 times a week for several weeks.
I have had a neck fusion and in the past have been given naproxen for that problem. It can help at times with the SJ, only if I take it 3 times a day for several days. But I am afraid of what it can do to my kidneys and so I try not to take it very often.
Every morning when I wake up I stretch forward over my folded legs, then after a few min. I twist to my left until my back and hip pop. If I cannot get it to pop that morning, I will have a severely painful day. I always wonder if the popping is a good thing for me to be doing or if I am making it worse.
Anyway, I am trying to let you know that you are not alone. And I can relate with everything that you listed. Do you get funny looks or the "yeah right" attitude from people when you try to explain your pain? My friends and family just don't understand what I try to explain to them. I get the feeling that they think I am making it up to get attention. I would be more then happy to have no attention, as long as it came with no pain. Sorry for the running on and on.
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I too have had several car accidents and never have an uninterrupted night sleep free of pain-it has made me old before my time.I also cannot take any Nsaids because of an ulcer and am searching for relief too.The only thing that really has helped me at all is deep strong massage and some muscle relaxers but it's not a cure.My husband yells all the time that the house it not clean but it is an impossible thing sometimes and I am so exhausted just trying to take care of a special needs teenager-no one really can understand this kind of pain-it just makes us look like chronic complainers!!!
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sn68f
Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 06:36 PM
alex8
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 at 05:57 PM
Sounds familiar! I have severe SI pain too, I am 48 with 3 young children and wife who works. I have had lumbar fusion and cervical fusion, and now my neck is sore again. I wish I could put my hand up and get off the world at time. I've been through it all, I go into work for about an hour a day then go home and alternate positions lying down. I sometimes just cry and hyperventilate. I have heard of a new class of drug called TNF blocks. They are very expensive, but maybe insurance will cover? I am finally being diagnosed correctly, after the neurosurgions cut me up. I hope these drugs work. Keep your hopes up. I need to do the same.
Dear Marta53,
Have you had the injections done in the Sl joints???? I also highly recommend ice (the gel kind) using the ice 20 mins on and 20 mins off is amazing,,, also, what about using a tens unit????
good luck to you, Let me know if you tried the above,,, take care, Linda
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I have just recently been diagnosed with arthritis in the hips/SI joint, and I am only 41. I've always had some form of back pain which usually goes away with rest. However, since about July it's become unbearable to sit for any length of time. I have to alternate between stretching, lying down, standing, sitting. I finally went in for a CT scan last week and the doctor said it was arthritis, scheduled me for a cortisone injection and said pretty much all that can be done is pain management. As there are days when I just want to bawl, I can't foresee a future of dealing with this. I have the same issues with housecleaning, etc., no help and no sympathy! I have had two cervical fusions, and would rather have been diagnosed with another herniated disc, because at least with that there was relief! I am in the national guard, and the full time desk job I have requires me to remain in the National Guard. I don't know how much longer I can do it. Disability and/or getting out of the military is not an option, but I swear some days, the pain is so excruciating! I am considering acupuncture as well as a second opinion.