I have been suffering with lower back/pelvic pain for the past two years. I have been seeing NHS doctors at UCL H in London as well as their physiotherapists for the last 18 months. The process has been incredibly slow and my patience has been running very thin as I have been in continual pain during that period. Two weeks ago I finally got to see the main consultant. He said most likely the problem is with my SI joint. They are going to run a detailed MRI on my S I joint and are sending me for a diagnostic pain injection into the joint. That at least it is progress of the sort.
However, given the amount of time that I've spent with them getting nowhere, I'm beginning to lose confidence. Even if they manage to get to a diagnosis, will they actually be able to treat it properly? For that reason I am trying to find who in the UK are the specialists in this area. If I have to pay for this privately now I'm ready to do so. I just need to know who are the best people. Can anybody help by recommending someone?
Best regard,
Richard
Written by
TigerMoth123
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Hi, thank you for the response. I have been assigned a physio at UCL H. However because I don't yet have a firm diagnosis there seems to be little that he can do. My issue is that to date I have been given very generic exercises to do. I'm just not confident that they know about S I joint dysfunction. I feel that I need someone who is primarily interested in that area.
Are they doing an MRI of your whole lumbar spine and hips and a ct scan? The reason is ask this is that I was suffering from severe lower back and groin pain. I have severe endometriosis so thought groin pain was poss due that although the pain was different. I have congenital scoliosis and started getting horrendous pain a few years ago, I realised straight away that I had developed osteoarthritis in my spine but despite the abnormalities in my spine I was told I was imagining my pain. I eventually paid to see a top spinal consultant in London who confirmed my fears and told me I needed major surgery. I fought my local NHS for months to get surgery at Guys, I underwent open 360 spinal fusion to treat ostearthritis and severe stenosis and during the surgery they discovered I had fractured several Pedicles. The ct scan did show I was missing Pedicles but due to my birth defects they just thought I had been born without them. The MRI didn't show this. A fractured pedicle can cause severe hip and groin pain. Also if the nerves are being compressed this can cause pain and mussel spasms.Yes the SI joint is Poss the problem but a scan of whole area could rule out other possible causes.
Julia
Hi if you are going to have a detailed MRI of your SI joint then soon you will have some answers. I have had spinal injections into my sacral spine, it was wonderful. However if you don't get the right diagnosis the spinal injection's effects will not be successful if the problem is due to something else. I think the best thing to do is have the MRI and wait for the results before you decide. Good Luck.
Many thanks for the reply. The SI joint injection is on the 29th of this month. The MRI is not scheduled yet but I am hoping that it is around the same time. The PA of the consultant I am seeing told me that normally I would see the consultant around 6 weeks after the injection. Presumably that is to give it time to see if the injection has worked. Is that how it worked for you? Did you have to wait for 6 weeks afterwards to see the consultant again?
I think that you are right that I just need to wait and see what comes of these tests. I am just very anxious at the moment as I had a flare up recently.
It’s a long time since your post but if you’re still active on here I would love to know the outcome of your SI joint injection at UCLH which is where I went in relation to symptoms of pudendal neuralgia. But I know my left SI joint is bad. Hope to hear from you
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