Pain in the Butt

I have had a pain in my butt lately & it believe it or not his name isn't Shane :)

For the last 6 months, I have noticed this pain/burning in my left butt cheek that is deep & radiates down my leg after I have been sitting for even short periods of time. When I get up from sitting, I have to move slow & usually walk with a limp until my leg feels normal again. Last week I jumped up to help a co-worker after sitting for quite some time while feeling the all too familiar pain in my cheek, then my left leg was tingly & I almost fell flat on my face. So I finally caved & made an appointment to see the Dr.

I thought for sure it was my sciatic nerve that was bothering me but after seeing the doc & performing a few "tests" which involved provoking sciatic nerve compression by doing flexion, adduction, & internal rotation maneuvers, as well as taking some X-rays it was determined it wasn't sciatica...kinda, sort of.

Turns out I have "piriformis syndrome" - a neuromuscular disorder that occurs when the sciatic nerve is compressed or irritated by the piriformis muscle which aggravates the nerve causing sciatica-type symptoms. Nothing too serious but it is something that is painful, uncomfortable & quite annoying.

To get rid of this annoying diagnosis, I have been instructed to take muscle relaxants at night, NSAID's during the day, do stretching & exercises that target the gluteus medius & hip abductor muscles daily & avoid activities like running, bicycling & unfortunately certain sex positions (what the heck?) which all aggravate the muscle while healing.

This is the literature the Dr gave me regarding this condition & sex because I didn't believe it either:
"it has been suggested that sexual intercourse can aggravate piriformis syndrome due to the abduction and external rotation of the hip joints by the female in the standard “missionary” position. Therefore, in women who suffer from piriformis syndrome, maybe copulating in the prone or canine positions would be better choices to avoid exacerbating the condition".

Who knew??

I can see the conversation now: "Sorry honey, my butt muscle is still healing. No lovin' for you!"

Ok - I better keep this clean. My family reads my blog & I'm sure I've already said too much :)

SO - am I going to live? YES. Will this pain go away? more than likely, YES. But if none of these things seem to be helping, then we will need to get a little more aggressive with treatment by doing things like physical therapy, massage, custom foot orthotics, gait correction or deep heat ultrasound treatments.

Here's hoping that my pain in the butt goes away soon because as simple as it sounds, it is starting to become debilitating.

Hmmm - however, I think I could handle getting massages every week?!?