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

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