New member with pirformis syndrome
 

Happy New Year!

I’m Shae and I’m struggling to get rid of this pirformis syndrome. I’ve been dealing with this for about year now. I’ve done physical therapy but nothing is working. It’s causing some major turmoil in my everyday life. Does anyone have any suggestions or anything else I can try or look into to?

Thanks

Hi Shae,

Welcome!

Though I don't have piriformis syndrome, for many years I watched a TV program called "Sit and Be Fit," and one exercise that was done daily was the piriformis stretch. Have you been doing that exercise? You can look it up by doing a Google search for it.

Physical therapy seems to be the best recommended treatment for this condition. Have you kept with the PT? You do really need to do the exercises regularly and accurately--keeping your form is important and often even the way you breathe matters.

Here's something about piriformis syndrome, and you'll see that there are a couple of suggested treatments for cases where PT hasn't worked:

Ask Dr. Rob about piriformis syndrome - Harvard Health

Possibly some alternative treatment options to consider, if standard PT /stretching is not helping..
Chiropractic
Low level laser (aka cold/soft laser)
Low Level Laser Therapy - Physiopedia
Ultrasound
IFc stim/electric stim
Acupuncture

Hi Shae.

Did your Physical Therapist(PT) also do Massage Therapy(MT)? If not you might look into PT that does both or find a Massage Therapist with knowledge of Piriformis Syndrome.

Welcome Shae. :welcome_sign:

Hi Shae

The link which agate has provided looks worth reading to me.

Don't give up
 

Don't give up Shae, ask your doctor for a cortisone injection in your piriformis muscle.
Suggest it as a diagnostic tool to see what changes!

Hi Shae,

I'm sorry to hear you are suffering with your piriformis muscle. I have suffered with piriformis myself and it hurt like hell. It always felt like my butt was on fire and I couldn't sit for no longer than a minute. I went through PT and it never helped me. My piriformus syndrome was caused from a couple of things.

1. My pelvic bone was tilted that caused the muscle to stretch and pinch the sciatic nerve.

2. My piriformis muscle was split like scissors and therefore was pinching both sides of the sciatic nerve.

I had to have surgery to relieve the pain. It was a easy outpatient surgery at a surgical center. My physician went in and cut 1 side of t gr e muscle to release the sciatic nerve. After surgery I felt immediate relief and haven't had that pain since then. You can ask your physician about the surgery. Its called "Piriformis Release."

Best wishes,

Diamond Tiger<3