Hi Martin
What you went through puts my current predicament to shame !
Perhaps I didn't explain myself too well when I said you have a weakness for life.
My normal problem is that L2 and L3 displace, one session to pop them back in and I'm fully fit and strong as an ox - until it happens again. This can be anything between 1 and 2 years, in between I have no pain whatsoever.
The daft thing is, when I cause the damage say by lifting something awkwardly I feel no pain - it's usually a day later when I bend down to pick up the newspaper that my back goes.
Hi
Weaknes for life? Never!
It was a life changing injury (had a chest infection half way through it, coughing fits that had tears rolling down my cheeks)
I was fully employed when it happened and they ended up taking £836 off me even though they promised to pay me in full (management discretion)
So after hurting Physically & mentally, they were also hurting me finacially.
That set me on the course to self employment as the only person who was going to take care of me was me. So I started looking at self employment and have been since 2000.
Also when you get 'manipulated' this actually causes mico tears in your supporting muscles and your supporting muscles are actually in trauma supporting the injury, that trauma has to come out and the deep tissue massage will sort that out for you, a sports massage therapist will get in as deep as you can stand and will be able to see if indeed the piriformis is putting pressure on the nerve, shoud be tender if you push your thumb into your ass cheeks.
Another way to check is to stretch the area:
Lay on the floor on your back, 1 leg out straight, one leg up with foot on the floor. Put the leg that is up over the straight leg and put the foot back on the floor next to the knee on the other side of it, slowly lower the bent knee to the floor, your body will slowly twist over to the side and that will stretch out your piriformis, you will certainly be able to feel it!
Do that slowly for both sides, one side may be tighter than the other, so if the left leg is bent you lower to the right side, until you can touch the floor or as close as you can get without over stretching.
It's an easy stretch to do and will tell you straight away if indeed that area is tight, you wil also stretch the hip and lower back area but nice and slow though.
Martin