Off topic, but you smart cookies can help me understand.

Hi, all.  I saw my hip surgeon on the 10th, got a cortisone injection yesterday, and picked up the chart notes yesterday.  The doctor's interpretation of the Xrays and the radiologists seem to be different, but that's not my issue.  I'm trying to understand some terminology that the radiologist used.  I know a lot of us have read a lot of reports and tried to understand them, and then there's Quix, for whom it could be child's play.

OK, what I don't quite understand is:

"There is periarticular sclerosis and spurring involving both sacroiliac joints.  There are bilateral iliac wing enthesopathy."

The rest I understand and won't bore you with, unless anyone is interested in the differences between the two reports.  You would probably really be needing distraction from other things for that!  :o)

I would appreciate your help in understanding the above.  I googled until my eyes wouldn't focus last night, and the cortisone was doing weird things to me, or maybe it was the lidocaine and buvipacaine.

Hugs all around,

Kathy

[Wobbly]

sorry, you got me there??  
can't help..

hope someone can...take care

andie

[Fluffysmom]

Thanks for responding.

Hope you're doing OK.  You're from Vancouver, as in across the river from me in Portland, or the other one?  If you're across the river, you must be experiencing this strange thing called sunshine; isn't it marvelous?  

Kathy

[Quixotic1]

Periarticular sclerosis - scarring and thicking around the joints (per = around, articular  = joint)

enthesopathy - (I had to look it up, lol) scarring in the area where the tendons and ligaments attach to the bone).

Q :))

[Wobbly]

I'm from Vancouver BC canada...and yes we have sun too ... finally...

hope it sticks around for alittle while...I haven't gone out yet though...

take care

andie

[Fluffysmom]

Thanks, does that mean that the SI joints are going to fuse themselves?  I've had pelvic instability from the right one for years; a girl can hope.

:o)

Kathy

[Fluffysmom]

I've only been up to your Vancouver once, with my mother driving, so I didn't see much of your city as she did things like go the wrong way down a one way street in front of a police officer.  

I'm glad you're having sun, too.  It brightens things up, even if you don't get out in it.

Kathy

[Wobbly]

it does help...

I go down through Portland when I head to Reno or Vegas....

I like your city...

andie

[6-paq]

Do you mind me asking what symptoms are you having relating to your SI joints and your hips?  

I've been told by my physical therapist that I have SI joint instability and hip arthritis.  I'm trying to figure out what symptoms come from that and what could be MS stuff.

Is your cortisone injection helping?

Thanks and take care, Pat :)

[Fluffysmom]

Pat,

My SI joint symptoms started with pain in my right buttock, then progressed to such instability that exercising on the eliptical at the gym would grind things together and cause pain.  Finally, but probably not the end of it all, my pelvis would rotate and get stuck so it would seem like one leg was shorter than the other, and then every thing would hurt.

It would rotate when I was out walking and would step up or down off a curb.  I did water aerobics, and jogging in the water would set things off.  By pain in everything, I mean that my piriformis and other muscles in the area would spasm, as well as in my abdomen and legs.  I had a physical therapist that would adjust the pelvis, and relive the symptoms, and learned how to self-correct.

I think that loosed stuff up more, though, because it would rotate as soon as I got off the PT table, and the right side of my pelvis had slippage, I believe she called it, which meant that it dropped lower.  So it ended up lower on one side and rotated.

I tried 8 sessions of prolotherapy, though I wonder if it helped any, since my symptoms kept getting worse.  When you consider that I have a lumbar disc issue and hip arthritis and the labral tear, it's hard to tell what is coming from where.

The cortisone isn't helping yet; the numbing medicine was nice for about 5 hours.  The radiologist that did my injection said to give it four days to see if it would start working.

I found a site called something like the Pelvic Instability Network Support at one time; it might have more info. about the SI joint stuff that is more pertinent to you than my tale of woe, lol.

Hope your symptoms aren't as bothersome!  Since I got the results of the brain MRI with all the lesions, I've had to add one more thing to wonder about what coming from where.  It is a royal pain in the patooty, and in this case, I mean it literally!

Take care of you, too!

Kathy

[6-paq]

Gosh, I'm sorry you're in such pain!!!  When you talk about "grinding" I think about fingernails on a chalkboard -- OUCH!!!

You and I sound very similar.  I also have lumbar disc issues (central canal stenosis) and the hip arthritis as well as the SI stuff.  And, we're the same age too.  :-)

Neuro found some lesions in a brain MRI, so he is thinking that all of my back/leg/hip and feet stuff is from MS and not the back/hip/SI  stuff (although he did consent to PT when I asked for it ~ 5 months after my l-spine MRI showed some issues).

When I first went to therapy, I had one leg "shorter" than the other too.   I was also "lower" and rotated (I think my right side was rotated further in front?)  My right shoulder was higher too.

She and an Ortho doc where she practices have adjusted me several times.  My PT says that my disc is "slippy" and the SI is unstable.   I can't run due to the discs and I was told that there are certain exercises that I can't do because of the SI joint (I was doing lunges and those are a definite "no-no").   Nothing that puts one side of the pelvis in front of another (or higher ~ I guess what you do when you step off of a curb).  

I'm at the point where I don't really know what I can or can't do.  My pain isn't near as bothersome as yours yet ((HUGS)), but I get too confused on what I can and can't do.  I started working out on our new Wii Fit and my lower legs/feet/hips/back started acting up.  Not sure if it's the MS stuff or not, but it did coincide with the new exercises.

And, like you said, there is so much going on that I can't tell anymore what could be an MS symptom and what isn't!  That's what's so frustrating!!!   According to my neuro, everything is MS.  According to my PT, it's all back/hips/si joint.

Did or do you have any symptoms in your lower legs and feet??  I have stuff on the bottom of my feet and outer side of my foot and calf, that I'm not sure if it's a lumbar spine thing or not (does correspond to L5 and S1 where I have stenosis).

I haven't heard about prolotherapy and I'm sorry that it doesn't seem to have helped you much.  I can visualize the water aerobics and how the jogging could set you off.  I would assume that it's the force of the water pushing back on each side of the front of your hip as you walked through the water.   I do hope that the cortisone will help shortly!

Thanks for the info and I'll look up the Pelvic Instability Network Support.

Take care, Pat :)

[Fluffysmom]

Well, I don't have central canal stenosis, just a disc herniation and DDD except for in L5-S1, but other than that we do have a lot in common!

I have down the back of my calf and into my foot.  I thought I had plantar faciitis and achilles tendonitis, but I guess it's just from the lumbar disc protrusion.  I've had some doctors say that I shouldn't have as much pain as I say I do from what they see on my MRI, but my PCP understands that the disc pain is aggravated by the hypermobility.  My Sports and Spine doc explained how the nucleus material is irritating to nerves, when it leaks out of the herniated disc.  I read that on line, too.  I think my last neuro missed that chapter in school.  She's history, I won't go into her thoughts again.

My right big toe hurts alot; I suppose that's along the dermatome for the  L-4 nerve root, which is where I was told my radiculopathy was coming from. It's very weak, too.

I haven't been diagnosed with MS, so I don't know just what is going on with my body, so I'm even more confused.  A lot of what I experience (parathesias) could be from MS, but who knows what I have?

I think I'll check out the Pelvic Instability Network again too; it's been so long, I forgot what was there.  Hopefully it will give us some ideas about what we can do physically without aggravating things, at least in part. I've been too sedentary since all the symptoms came together with fatigue, and I miss being active.  I'm hoping this hip shot will help some too; I've got places to go and things to do!

Thanks for the empathy!

Hugs,

Kathy

[6-paq]

I found the PINS website and it has tons of info!   Thanks so much for that tip!!  I was told I have Plantar Fasciitis as well (by my PT ~ I absolutely LOVE her).

Not diagnosed either and that's why it's so frustrating and confusing.  My neuro saw my l-spine MRI and said, "Your back has nothing to do with what's going on in your legs and feet" (I have stenosis from L4-S1).  

After the PT and finding out about the SIJ, I'm really observing what I do in my activities and I am finding a correlation between the tingling and what I do.   But, that could be "MS denial" as well.  So, I don't know.

I'm almost thinking about seeing a Sports and Spine Doc to specifically deal with those back/SI issues.  Would you recommend that?

Hoping that shot starts helping you with your pain soon!!!

Take care and ((HUGS)), Pat :)