Low back L5 ache, clunking pop, tightness. Clicking in SI joints with a tight feeling in lumbar sacral area.

by Kayla
(Rochester, NY)

for starters i am only 24 years old and my low back pelvic pain has been mysteriously debilitating and has impacted my life in every way. it started aching after I sat in jury duty, three months ago. after a week of dealing with the constant ache, the pain went away from rest and mild low back exercises my primary care gave me. until about a month later i stupidly lifted myself up on a desk and twisted my back and heard a crack in the l1,t12 area that did not sound right at all although the actual crack itself didn't hurt, the pain started again right after and i have been dealing with this ever since to some degree. i took another week off to rest but it was a constant pain in my l5 joint area, si joint area, sacrum, radiating down to my coccyx, sometimes shooting to the t12 area again. it hurt when i walked, sat, lay down, and stood. there was no relief what so ever and no amount of muscle relaxers, anti inflammatories, chiropractic treatments, ice/hot compresses, or exercises could help. i had 2 xrays done that came up negative. good news is i dont seem to exhibit any nerve issues so there is no hand, arm, leg, or foot pain. i saw a physical therapist that seemed to think that i had some sort of lumbar posterolateral disc derangement. i went 2x and did his extension exercise for a week and a half and progressively just became worse so i stopped going. three days ago, i stumbled upon this pelvic alignment exercise to which i followed and being in a bridge position with left leg up made my right posterior iliac crest make this shifting clunk sound and almost immediately i felt relief from these aches, leading me to think that the crest was lodged over the sacral bone of some sort. i have done those alignments for a couple days now with mild low back, gluteal, core exercises to help strengthen the area. this has improved my aches and pains quite a bit so now i am able to walk, sit, stand for longer periods of time and i can lay down with relief most of the time. i am a makeup artist and bending forward has put a lot of stress on my back since this injury causing an immense sort of stiffness that i can only describe as a feeling of a corset being tight laced around my lumbar spine. this causes soreness with a lot of pops and clicks in the lumbar sacral, si joint area when standing straight up again; although i have been trying to avoid flexion of any sort. but it almost feels like there's not enough space for my lumbar vertebrae in a sense. if i tilt my pelvis down with my bottom pushing up, I can feel a grinding kind of popping sound in the s5 area although it causes me no pain, it seems to possibly contribute to that stiffness. additionally if I tilt my pelvis forward and clench my glutes this seems to temporarily stop the popping sound. for further details i was a cheerleader for a couple years in high school and my conjecture is that hypermobility might have been a factor leading up to this and i say this might be a possibility because flexibility has always been easy for me; i can push my thumb down and touch my forearm. furthermore i can also touch my palms flat to the floor with no bend in legs. since i have not been building the muscle strength that i used to have nor have i kept limber with any stretching either so maybe the chiropractic adjustments were not favorable for my condition thus causing more problems obviously i am not sure and this is only a thought. i sincerely apologize for the lengthy explanation but i wanted to be precise with my description to give you a better idea. i would appreciate any feedback and/or opinion of yours as my mental health has really taken a toll with this and i am physically, mentally, and emotionally unsure how i can continue living like this any longer. please help me


Hello Kayla,
Google downgrades my site with grammar like this; please resubmit from a computer. Sorry but I get hundreds of letters and haven't the time to do your dirty work. You have legitimate questions that need answers.

Dr B

Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Chiropractic help Questions (Low back pain).





Did you find this page useful? Then perhaps forward it to a suffering friend. Better still, Tweet or Face Book it.