I’m Being Hassled by Transients

In the photo above, the two red arrows point to an abnormality in my sacrum, in the sacral surface of the sacroiliac joint.

For those of you who have been playing along at home, I’ve been suffering from lower back, leg and foot pain since December of 2007. It’s near constant pain, and I’ve been been treated in various ways over the last two years, by enough medical professionals to make up a baseball team. I’ve seen two MD’s, two Doctors of Orthopedics, two physical therapists (and their three assistants), a chiropractor (and his team of assistants) and a massage therapist. The first doctor (Dr. James West, a back surgeon) saw me in mid-December of 2007 and thought I had a pulled muscle. He sent me to a spinal rehabilitation/back pain therapist (Sharon Young) who thought I had a herniated lumbar disc. She worked with me for months, and eventually gave up. She sent me back to the surgeon, who ordered an MRI. The MRI showed my perfectly-healthy lumbar spine and nothing else. Since he couldn’t do anything for me, he sent me to see a colleague, Dr. Chris Nichols, a Doctor of Orthopedics. He diagnosed me with sacroiliitis, or an inflammation of the sacroiliac joint, as a result of hypermobility of my sacroiliac joints. He injected me with a corticosteroid and sent me on my way.

When the injection failed, I decided to try a chiropractor, Dr. Kenneth Robinson. He tried mobilizing my sacroiliac joints, which accomplished nothing. Eventually, he admitted that he had no way of treating me, and he referred me to another Doctor of Orthopedics, Dr. Leslie Rush. Dr. Rush tried another corticosteroid injection, which only increased my pain. He confirmed Dr. Nichols’ diagnosis with a nuclear bone scan (scintigraph) and suggested prolotherapy (an experimental treatment for joint hypermobility) and exercise. At this point I’d been “turfed” by three doctors, a chiropractor and a physical therapist.

That was the first year of pain.

I decided to put off the prolotherapy for a while as I researched my options. In July of 2009, I started having pain in my coccyx (tailbone) which made it hard for me to sit or to drive. I went back to Dr. Rush and he sent me to see physical therapist #2, Connie Gillespie. Connie specializes in pelvic disorders, and she spent two months working with me. She helped me get into an exercise routine, and got me set up with a TENS unit for pain. I went back to Dr. Rush, and he suggested that I try radiofrequency ablation. It’s a process by which radio waves are used to deaden the nerves conducting pain from an area. He set me up with a radiologist who specializes in RF, Dr. Jason Williams. Dr. Williams told me that in order to do the radiofrequency ablation, he’d have to do a series of CT-guided corticosteroid injections to make sure that the RF would work. He gave the first injection on Tuesday the 6th of October, and the scan at the top of this post is what he saw.

It’s not sacroiliac joint dysfunction or hypermobility, according to Dr. Williams. It’s Transient Osteoporosis of the sacrum. Basically it’s a localized form of osteoporosis, limited to one bone and one area of that bone. It’s rare, and from what little I’ve been able to glean from the Internet, it’s normally seen in women who have gained excess weight in pregnancy. It usually resolves in six to twenty-four months, and doesn’t seem to cause other complications.

That’s usually. Of course, I’ve got to be difficult.

I’m remaining “cautiously pessimistic” about my chances for recovery. I’ve been through so many treatments, and so many of them have failed, that I no longer get excited about the next miracle cure. Dr. Williams has suggested a course of a once-a-month IV medication for osteoporosis. We’ll see.

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.

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