Response to the Comment on "A Shot in the Butt"

I feel remarkably better! I have NO pain on external rotation; a movement that before to even rotate my leg from the brake pedal to the gas would cause excruciating pain. The sciatic pressure running from the high hammy through the mid hamstring and ending in a very tender/sore feeling ligament on the outside (lateral) side of my knee is GONE! I've been working at strengthening the whole leg for almost a year but was only to really make significant strength improvements after the cortisone injection which relieved me of the inflammation and thus the pain. I am however experiencing some pain in the glute medius/external rotators now that I've returned to my regular job as a driver, but they were so weak from non use that I suppose that's to be expected and it is a very physical job plus the pain is more like a sore muscle feeling rather than a torn/injured one.

As I recently told one of my running buddies who inquired about this "quick fix" for his own pain in the butt. He described it to me and it sounded exactly like piriformis. I told him he should see an orthopod, but that the he would most likely be told to do PT and stretch which is exactly what the ortho he saw on Thursday told him to do. He is very inflexible and has horrible balance. Not to say that an orthpod wouldn't write a script for this procedure, but it seems they are reluctant to do so until the patient has refrained from over working it, done the PT, and is able to touch his toes. He was told he could still run, but not to do speed work or race.

My case started almost a year ago with a twisting fall forward which caused micro tears and a torn meniscus in my knee. It felt so tight that I overstretched it causing the biceps femoris to tear from the bone (an avulsion) with a very alarming pop/snap feeling and I again tore it more while pulling heavy boxes through my truck. I had completed 62 sessions of PT (way more than is needed) and other than doing a tad of running, leisure biking, pilates and quite a bit of swimming during this time it just wasn't getting better. IMO the cortisone injection was a miracle worker. I've been told that it could just be a temporary fix, that the cortisone is just masking the pain, but I've also been told that I may never need another one. I'm hoping for the latter.

I wish you luck. Hamstring tendinitis and tears are NO fun and neither is Piriformis Syndrome. The original post about the shot is here.