hi jewelz,
if you see a PT or physiatrist, they can show you where your SI is. if you google sacroiliac joint images, you can see it as well.
essentially, its where the spine and the pelvis come together and then the joint within the pelvis.
if you feel just above your butt and just below your back where its kind of bony and lumpy feeling, or maybe that's just because mine's inflamed, not sure i remember anymore what it feels like when its not inflamed. then you follow along the ridge of the pelvis and then down along the inside of the pelvic bones. mine hurts all along there. initially it was only in that top "dimply" area but now it seems to go down further into the pelvis. i'm going in for cortisone injections into both sides of my SI next week. its been more or less continually inflamed for about a year and a half now. the last time it was like that, the cortisone shot did wonders, for about a year, which sounds pretty good right about now.
though i still think, for me, spondy can't be ruled out, and the current rheumy has me down as seronegative spondyloarthropathy. he also admits to not knowing 100% what kind of arthritis it is and is encouraging me to go out of town for a better dx.
it is possible that we have a different form of arthritis that doesn't have a name yet.
in science, things should add up, and when they don't, it means we just don't have it all figured out yet. but the answers are there, we just need to discover and understand them.
we'll get this figured out yet.
or at least we'll find a way to treat it.
like with my stomach. neither the doctors nor i ever tried to determine why i have gastritis; the drugs and diet modifications work for me to a large degree. so long as i also stay away from caffeine, NSAIDs, and any other drugs known to bother the stomach.
however, if the medications for the stomach were expensive and/or potentially dangerous, then i probably wouldn't have been treated so readily. that's the only reason i can imagine that getting treated for my arthritis has been so painstakingly slow.
but slowly too, we have to build our case. not that it should be that way, but if it is, so be it.
we'll get there. (hopefully you can tell, i'm trying to convince myself as much as i'm trying to convince you)
