“Scratching your bum” is what my 6-year-old says I am doing when I sit on a tennis ball to try to alleviate my Piriformis syndrome. Yes, this is the newest of my aches and pains.
From this site :
“Piriformis syndrome is a condition in which the piriformis muscle, located in the buttock region, spasms and causes buttock pain. The piriformis muscle can also irritate the nearby sciatic nerve and cause pain, numbness and tingling along the back of the leg and into the foot”
“The piriformis is a small muscle located deep in the buttock, behind the gluteus maximus. It runs diagonally from the lower spine to the upper surface of the femur, with the sciatic nerve running underneath or through the muscle. The piriformis muscle helps the hip rotate, turning the leg and foot outward.”
A small muscle they say, a little problem you may presume… Sitting today in church with a spasm in the part I use to sit with it sure didn’t feel so small. I hope the preacher did not think my facial expression had something to do with his message.
What helps on the short term is to get up and stretch or walk around. At work that is acceptable since a manager could manage as he wanders around. Sitting in church after a 30k morning run the urge to rest and fall asleep was effectively countered by this dull, insistent pain and probably for good, because it was a good sermon which I wouldn’t have wanted to sleep through. (The love of Christ and we, His agents to carry this love and also the message that goes with it.)
So I also read some of the advice to treat this tenacious pain in the butt. I must apparently lie on my stomach with an ice-pack strategically placed. Or better yet, let someone gently massage the painful area with an ice-cube. (Just be careful of ice-burn if the ice should be applied directly to the skin.) Nope, I don’t think so.
Or, similar, but use a heat pack – just don’t fall asleep, they say. Sunday afternoon, after a 30k run, lay still for 20 minutes, but don’t fall asleep. Sure.
Or otherwise a botox injection. Isn’t that the same stuff they use for plastic surgery to enhance a woman’s… you know her… I think you know what I am talking about. Or what about electrotherapy? Shocking, I know. Or you can even cut the piriformis muscle. Now you are talking. Just cut it off. Who needs a piriformis anyway if it causes so much pain.
Well, I am sitting on my tennis ball as I write this. The guys who play tennis with me three times a week, will agree that this is probably a better use for a tennis ball – in my case anyway.
Keep running
Stephan
Running with a Friend 