History of mild/moderate sciatica and low back pain from both L5/S1 bulging disc and some facet joint issues. This new pain is different and yes, I have an MRI scheduled for Tuesday. Ramped run mileage up significantly (100% increase in 4 weeks, yes, very, very stupid). On a regular 30 min run 2 weeks ago had debilitating pain in glutes, hip and low back…we’re talking “I can’t run anymore” pain. Limped around for 2-3 days after. Haven’t run since. Most of the time this pain doesn’t hurt sitting - sat on a 3 hour flight last night and no issues (if this was sciatica it would for sure have been an issue). Putting on pants or leaning on the injured side is painful. Basically, shifting any weight to the affected side invokes some discomfort. This pain is very obvious when going down even just one stair…I sometimes have to grab the railing. Lying down or sleeping is no problem - although if I twist or move position I feel it. I have tried to go for walks thinking this was soft tissue or sciatica and a walk would warm/loosen things up and instead the pain steadily increases with every step. Walking an airport terminal last night was painful. I’ve had several ART treatments with really no relief except to provide some temporary loosening of the muscles.
A buddy of mine described the same symptoms and said he had a Sacral stress fracture. Does this sound right? What are the other potential issues?
Jim, I fractured my left sacral wing about 2 years ago. Got out of bed the morning after a great run the previous day and almost fell right on my face the pain was so bad. This is definitely from your ramp up. When you go in for your MRI, make sure they get low enough to get the whole bone. There will be a long rehab awaiting you. Let us know.
Sacral stress fractures are rare; however, they can happen.
When I had mine, the only time I got any sharp pain was after running for a few miles, could still ‘run through’ it ok-ish, but just too many red flags were going off. All the other time, there was just a strange dull ache in the hip area and the the glute muscles were super tight all the time. Almost felt like I needed to pop my lower back all the time, but wouldn’t go away. I seriously thought it was a soft tissue problem.
differential dx could be a number of other things, but others that came up were SI dysfunction, glute strain, femoral neck stress fx, and piriformis synd, but the MRI was done right away and the sacral stress fx was found.
Like the other poster said, if it is a sacral stress fracture, be prepared for a loooonnnggg rehab. These are SLOW to heal, and this isn’t one of those ‘6 weeks and you are ok’ type things. WHEN I could get in the pool again (yes, I could not swim for a while due to concern over the fracture displacing with rotation in the water) I learned to embrace 30k swim weeks for a while!!
The good thing is that even though it is a painstaking recovery, these heal up pretty well, it just takes a ton of time.
If you want more info, you can also do a search an probably find some posts that I wrote when I was going through this.
Look up ‘CJW’. He’s one of my athletes and has been thru this. He might be able to further assist. What you describe sounds very much like what he went thru.
MRI yesterday revealed a stress fracture of left sacrum, zone one, adjacent to the SI joint. So there we have it.
Thanks for feedback, Jim. Not the first time my armchair diagnosis has been wrong. I was leaning away from SI stress fx because symptoms do not mimic sciatica and sitting is not painful. At the risk of misleading you further, I recommend that for the next 4 to 6 weeks you refrain from weight-bearing exercise. Swimming and upper-body aerobic exercise should be okay and help to maintain some fitness. In any case, follow the advice of your physician… who has the real scoop.
Give CJW a buzz, seriously. He’ll have some good advice for getting out of this. Main thing tho is to persevere and keep your head up. You’ll get through this.
