I was diagnosed in early Dec with Piriformis syndrome. This came out of nowhere as I am not an athlete. I had excrutiating pain in left glute--like a charleyhorse that wouldnt quit--for over seven days. I also had numbness and loss of motor control in L4/L5 area. After MRI showed only very mild degenerative disc disease I was tossed aside by my fam. doc. to find relief on my own. Found a great chiro. who was able to relieve my pain. My question to any of you who may have experienced loss of motor control...does it ever come back?? I am seeing a neurologist in a couple weeks but I am a bit panicked. I can not walk on left heel. Though it has gotten a bit better it worries me that it will not come back. Anyone share anything remotely similar to this? I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks.
Deetee

http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/spra...piriformis.htm

I get a similar thing, but no numbness or loss of control.
My chiro takes care of mine when it is acting up.

If hyper-mobile it may be an ongoing thing - chiro adjusts and then depending on what you do it can go out again... and sometimes it just takes some retraining of the muscles & time to keep the adjustment.

Can't believe drs that won't at least send you for a PT evaluation....glad you have helpful chiro though.

I looked up online videos for stretches, maybe some of these will be of help-
http://video.google.com/videosearch?...8&sa=N&tab=wv#

Hope you are still visiting this forum ..... I have posted exactly that question on other pain forums but have only just found this one . I have PS and like you have major problems with my heel. I have not found any treatment that will help me yet (always positive tho'. . . . well mostly)
Would love to hear from you.
Helen

I'm a 39 year old male. I was very active prior to the chronic pain. I'm at my wits end. My anxiety and depression are at their worst. I'm now in psychotherapy, but I don't think one hour a week of talking about how my pain is degrading my mental capacity is helping me. I'm not criticizing all therapy; it's just not helping me with pain. I need to find a way to stop the pain or I fear that I will simply give up on everything.

My pain is in my right buttock daily, and often travels down into my right hamstring. After golfing 18 holes, my pain will manifest itself in my groin for up the three days.

I wake up every day at a 2/3 on the pain scale. Sitting in an office chair or in a car cause my pain to rapidly increase from a 2/3 to an 8/9. When I say rapidly I mean 10 to 30 minutes. My right butt muscles spasm randomly every day from one spasm episode to multiple episodes lasting anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds. The spasms do not trigger painful sensations. I take Baclofen to stop the spasms but the pain is not relieved.

My relentless journey to find the reason and cure for this pain includes:

Imaging
Over the last 4 years I’ve had several MRIs (with and without contrast) of my lower back, right hip and hemi-pelvis, x-rays of lumbar spine, ultrasound of ischial bursa area, and whole body bone scans. The MRIs show:

L4-L5: minimal posterolateral disk bulges are identified bilaterally. There are no focal significant disk herniations or evidence of central canal stenosis. There is mild narrowing of the neural foramina bilaterally.

L5-S1: There is a small broad-based posterior central disk protrusion at this level. There is no evidence for compromise of central canal or nerve roots. There is no significant foraminal narrowing.

Treatments

Over the last 4 years I’ve tried the following treatments, and have summarized each treatment’s effectiveness.

Cold and Heat Therapy: Doesn’t relieve the pain.

Piriformis Stretching and Neural Flossing: Provides immediate relief, but only temporarily.

Core muscle strengthening: Doesn’t relieve the pain.

Psoas muscle release: Doesn’t relieve the pain.

Piriformis muscle release: Provides immediate relief, but only temporarily.

About 3 months of weekly Physical Therapy: Doesn’t relieve the pain.

TENS unit: Delays the onset of the pain, but causing skin irritation and discomfort.

Sitting on a 70cm exercise ball versus office chair: Doesn’t relieve the pain.

Sitting on a FitBall disk on top of office chair: Doesn’t relieve the pain.

Sitting on pillow on top of office chair: Doesn’t relieve the pain.

About 3 years of weekly Chiropractic manipulation: Doesn’t relieve the pain. I did learn that I had fallen arches, specifically on the same side as the pain. I have ortho inserts and wear them daily now.
Acupuncture (3 visits): Doesn’t relieve the pain.

CT-guided Epidural steroid injections in L4, L5, S1: First injection relieved the pain for 6 months, second injection relieved the pain for 3 months and third injection relieved the pain for 2 weeks.

CT-guided Ischial bursa injection: Doesn’t relieve the pain.

CT-guided Piriformis injections (steroid and Botox): First steroid injection relieved the pain for a couple of months; second steroid injection relieved the pain for 2 weeks. Botox injection doesn’t relieve the pain.

RF Ablations of T-11 through L3 twice with 3 month periods (Sept 5 and Dec 2, 2011), Doesn’t relieve the pain.

Pain Management

Ibuprofen/Aleve/Tylenol: Doesn’t relieve the pain. Took Ibuprofen almost every day for 1 year and ended up with Gastritis. I stopped taking NSAIDs. I cured my Gastritis by drinking Aloe Vera Gel over a 3-week period.

Darvocet 10MG: Decreased the pain by 1-2 points for 30 to 60 minutes.

Hydrocodone/APAP 10MG: Decreased the pain by 2-3 points for 30 to 60 minutes.

Oxycodone/APAP 10MG: Decreases the pain by 4-5 points for 1 to 1.5 hours.

Lyrica: No pain relief.

Gabapentin: Couldn't tolerate.

Topirimate: Only been taking it for one month. Haven’t noticed any pain relief from it.

Lidoderm Patch: Just started wearing these five days ago. Doesn't relieve the pain when sitting, however, when I wear the patch and don’t sit upright I feel great.

Baclofen: Stops the buttock muscle spasms but doesn’t relieve the pain.

Lidocaine: Had 10cc injected about ½ inch below the skin above the center of the Piriformis (my wife is in the medical field) and all of my pain went away for about 45 minutes. I even went for a long drive after making sure my leg wasn’t numb and no pain was triggered.

I’m now thinking of having Piriformis Release Surgery. I live in Milwaukee, WI. Does anyone have any advice for my after reading my story? My anxiety and depression are winning the battle at the moment. It’s affecting my work and my family life. I’m losing myself. I’m not suicidal because I have kids that need and deserve their father, but if it wasn’t for them there would be no reason to continue this suffering.

I've attached a .zip file of my scans in case I'm lucky enough for someone to come across this post, read my images, and find something helpful.

Aaaah mannnn, I feel for you guys suffering through this!!! That's how all my issues started!!! Be EXTREMELY glad your MRI's don't show any issues with your lower spine though! In my case, my GP thought it was a pirifomis muscle problem BUT couldn't understand why it was affecting BOTH sides. No heel pain though. He sent me to an OS who prescribed P/T + ultram. As it worsened, the GP then thought it was sciatica, but then the problem GREW! Don't mean to scare you - this is just my particular issue.

Do you get nerve or muscle spasms in your leg / legs? Can you identify anything that may have precipitated your pain - a fall, stepping in a hole, picking up something heavy, etc.?

Thank you for replying and your kind words. I did have a minor injury during exercise to my right inner groin while doing Pilates. I have sapams every day in one of my butt muscles but they dont come with pain. The baclofen keep the spasms at bay. However, the pain is chronic.

Please ** look for Piriformis syndrome Dr. Arron Filler. You will get to his informative video that explains and show options for this syndrome.
For your information that you really need. Best wishes

I live in Milwaukee, WI and have been through everything you have tried -

First of all I have found that walking slowly on a mini tramp with socks only - start off with as many minutes as you can tolerate, only walk do not bounce or run - you will know within minutes if it is your piriformis that is the problem because it will pull/hurt like hell -

I am a life long athlete and exercise is both my daily saviour and my daily curse.

After 20 years of trouble from 9 major spinal surgeries being fused from head to toe with only two moveable levels left in my spine - I can tell you sometimes the simplest technique - something you don't even want to try turns out to help the most.

I also would like to point out that anytime you have a disc bulge - MRI's don't show if nerves are being impinged - or pressed etc....there are tons of nerves that branch out from the spinal cord - and your MRI results could be causing lots of pain from nerve impingement that is very difficult to see unless you have a myleogram which you don't ever want to do in my opinion having had 4 of them -

Try the mini tramp thing - make the investment - can't hurt - also meditation - now don't immediately roll your eyes - I used to think meditation was for "those types of people" not me - however - now I practice it daily and it has awesome results not only in terms of pain but all daily life situations....you become calmer - more at peace during situations that usually stress you out - you react slower with more thought - totally amazing...but difficult to learn and master - stick with it -

I see Advanced pain Management in Greendale WI - you may want to see them and see if they can offer you any other alternatives.

kelli

Good to know that the mini-tramp works. We actually have one!

I'm a couple weeks into physical therapy after seeing a physiatrist. They have the piriformis loosened up pretty well, and I've been exercising in the therapy pool. They also have me gradually resuming my walking program on land.

It looks like there might also be some IT band problems that are coming to the surface now that the piriformis is calmer. Such an adventure!

I'm a 52 year old female. Fairly athletic, 128 lbs, work out regularly.

2 months ago, I woke one day with pain in my left glute and running down my left hamstring. As mentioned by everyone above, painful 24/7.
I went to a general practioner 2 weeks into this and was prescribed pain meds. That helped me to be able to get some sleep, so at the time it was an ok thing. Those ran out and I was taking 8-10 advil every single day to get some relief but always waking up to the same unbearable pain/ache.

Prior to this injury, every pulled/strained muscle I ever had gradually got better and went away with in a week. Not this.

For the first time, I went to a chiropractor. After alot of initial questions/answers regarding my pain, and some leg bending, hip feeling, they took some xrays.
Turns out my left hip was 1/2" higher than my right hip. She said it's probably been this way for a while and my body had been compensating for it until one day I did something (aka rowing machine) that was the "last straw" and boom - pain.
The pain is a symptom of another problem and in my case my hips not being aligned. She said this happened, just from life - sitting with crossed legs or maybe driving leaning to one side all the time, etc... just living.

So, now the regime is 12 visits within 1 month to manipulate my hip back to where it should be and to do it enough times so that it stays there for good.
I already feel 30% better and she assures me after a month I'll be pain free.
At that point the visits turn into 1 a week and then at my discretion.

Hopefully this will help someone else. It was a TOTAL pain in the butt!