Lumbar Pain

Recently, I had visit from a man who is employed as a handyman/laborer/cleaner, at the local high school. This is a 45 year-old, of slender but muscular build. Typical of his duties was the occasional movement of furniture and other items considered to be too heavy or too awkward for class-room staff.

During one of these events, (moving a heavy waste-bin) he experienced pain in his right hip, in the vicinity of the SIJ. This was followed soon after by referred pain in parts of the lower limb, portions of the ITB, lateral condyle of the femur, and the right heel. Other zones of the R. leg had become numb, in his own words:you could stick a pin in here, and here, and I would feel nothing.

As this was classified as a work-related injury, for which the employer - the state Education Department - could be considered liable for the any costs, he was sent to the local medical practitioner for assessment.

The source of pain was initially diagnosed as linked to possible lumbar spinal disc damage, the extent of which could only be determined by radiological examination. As the local MRI facility was not available for at least a week due to demand, he was advised to take a week off work, while awaiting his turn in the queue.

Time off work, for many unskilled workers, represents a monetary loss, as well as an entry on his work record - not good for his reputation if he should attempt to gain employment elsewhere sometime in the future; he elected , therefore, to remain at work, on so-called light duties.

Impatient with the waiting, and the discomfort, he came to see me for advice; On examining him, I found muscular contractions in his RS lateral rotator muscles. Two treatments reduced these contractions, sufficient to lower the pain, and the numbness. he returned to work, no time was lost, and no compensation claim was pursued.

The moral of the story ?

Not that I achieved a miracle, many of today's properly trained manual therapists would have made the same examination, come to the same conclusion, and achieved the same result as I did.

My point is, that an MRI would probably not have revealed the presence of muscular contractions in the hip area, and, furthermore, the possibility that such muscular contractions, ( in the vicinity of gluteus medius), was not even considered as a likely culprit.

The medical practitioner was not at fault here, this is not a feeble attempt to score points at his expense - such a source of sciatica was, I suggest, probably not even taught at his college.

For about $100, the problem was quickly solved; an MRI would have cost thousands. The $100 might even have achieved a nil result- surely this is a reasonable wager ?