I first developed my sacroiliac joint issues in 2011, after a fall in which I experienced blunt force to the pelvis, spraining some of my SI joint ligaments.
The first time one of my SI joints locked up, I didn’t know what to do. It felt as though someone had tied a belt around my upper thighs– I couldn’t control my legs normally. A second ago, I’d been able to walk– now all I could do was hobble.
A chiropractor is the one who explained to me that this “locking” sensation was my SI joint. With a few clicks of his “Activator” tool, he was able to unlock the joint, and my legs were free again.
I’d never heard of the SI joint before, but boy, was I in for a long ride.
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Although chiropractic adjustments helped temporarily, years later I would realize that having too many adjustments was actually making things worse, making it harder for my body to stabilize.
The reason I went to a chiropractor for years was because chiropractors seemed to be the only people who even knew what I was talking about when I mentioned “sacroiliac joint dysfunction.”
I tried repeatedly to find a doctor or a physical therapist who also understood the mysterious locking sensation in my pelvis, or the reason it was sometimes so hard for me to move my legs. Over the years I saw several physical therapists, as well as pain specialists, physiatrists, and orthopedists.
But time and time again, doctors and PT’s would tell me SI joint dysfunction wasn’t something they treated. Instead, it was something they had learned about in a vague sense when they were studying anatomy in school, but they knew nothing about its potential to cause pain.
For years, I felt like a crazy person, walking around telling people I had this really serious lower back problem that only chiropractors could understand. I mean, it sounds crazy, right?
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Ultimately, it turned out that I wasn’t crazy, and that this problem was every bit as real as I thought it was.
It would take five years for me to fully understand what was going on, and what my body needed. I had to persevere and educate myself, and really take matters into my own hands to figure out what worked.
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Eventually, I came to realize that a lot of the things I’d been doing weren’t helping the way I thought. In fact, some of my exercises and treatments had actually been increasing the amount of stress and inflammation in the SI joint.
So, I changed things up.
I came up with a program that was designed to maximize healing and increasing muscle strength, in a way that was still gentle on the joint itself.
That is how I finally healed.
Now, these same principles make up the core of my recovery philosophy. Check out my post How I healed my SI joints without surgery for more!
My Sacroiliac Joint Saga 