Question
I have been complaining for years about my hip and the pain in my lower back..but all my doctor's do..is take an x ray..tell me they found nothing and send me on my way.
I just started seeing a pelvic scar tissue therapist and she found my hip was up slide..and my pelvis rotated..so I went to an ortho dr and he took an MRI..found that my SI disc was also protruding on top of the up slid hip and rotated pelvis..with mild osteoarthritis.
I started physical therapy to get this back in place..but now have so much pain..that I can barely walk and spent two days in the hospital..which they took more x rays and seen nothing..please help me..I don't know what to do..and now when I sit..my tail bone hurts and I feel like I am going to let my bowels lose..I just turned 34, and because I have lupus they tried to say it was this..then found out later all the above.

Answer
Pepper,

First: tell your doctors to stop taking x-rays!!!   Yes, your Lupus may be a culprit, causing you to have pain in ways others don't.   Also, the research on back pain seems to point in the direction of either getting manual therapy such as chiropractic joint manipulation or manual tractioning, strengthening exercises, or "core stability" exercises.   Research also demonstrates that factors such as depression can be a real complicating factor for protracted pain.   Also, it is not a bad idea to be sure that your body's vitamin-D level is well in the normal range, somewhere between 60 and 85 (your doctor must do a "D3" blood test).   Lastly, if your MRI shows that the disc is compressing your spinal canal and the nerves, you can lose your reflexes and also lose your bowel and bladder control.  If you have this, it is more serious and often requires surgical intervention.  Every well-trained doctor knows how to evaluate for this condition, call cauda equina syndrome.   So if they say, "no," that you don't have cauda equina syndrome, then that's great.   Don't worry about the osteoarthritis.   It has no correlation with pain.   See if you can find a good chiropractor.   Contact someone on this list: www.westhartfordgroup.com;   I am curious what kind of provider was a "scar tissue therapist." Was this a massage therapist or a PT or a doctor?  Hopeully you can find a chiropractic doctor who can catagorize you into a treatment group, e.g. weak (needing exercise), stuck/out-of-what/fixated joints (needing joint manipulation), loose-vertebra/unstable (needing stability exercise = they will do the "prone instability test" which you can google).   

'Hope this was helpful.

Dr. G