Question: Hello Doctor.
I am having an issue with my lower back. In January of this year, I was diagnosed with 2 herniated discs at L5/S1, and had sciatica all down the leg. This, I believed was caused by sitting down for long hours in my job and not exercising. My doctor recommended bed rest until the sciatica was gone completely, which took over 2 months. I then started gradually exercising, and started doing physiotherapy to loosen and strengthen the muscles. The lower back muscles were sore at the beginning but that eventually left. In XXXXXXX my back muscles seized up and I had to get an injection & diazapan, and undertook intensive physiotherapy. Since then, until October, I did not have any major issues. I did hip flexor and lower back exercises almost everyday., however, I sometimes noticed that my left leg felt heavier than my right leg (the sciatica was in my left leg). In October, my back muscles were feeling very tight, so i did a course of physiotherapy for 4 weeks, but this didnt help. (I also took prescribed anti inflammatory tablets - vimovo - during this time).Sciatica came back 2 weeks ago. I visited my doctor, who specialises in backs, and is also an osteopath. I thought I may be out of alignment, but was not too much, and he corrected that last week. He doesnt believe that the issue is the dics as I do not have pain, when he touches them and my reflexes are ok. I did some reading in the past week in terms of muscle tightness, (tight hamstrings due to sitting down was the initial cause, in my opinion,) and began doing exercises for them.The weightiness in my left leg is now almost gone. Yesterday, I visited my doctor again, he helped stretch out the glutes and psoas muscle. Again, he is not sure why there is pain, he doesnt think it is sciatica, but something mimicking the pain associated with sciatica. He also gave me an anti-inflammatory injection in my my left hip and prescribed 3 5mg of diazapan for the weekend, however, i still have the sciatica like pain today....I am wondering if it is something else.

Hello Dr. XXXXXXX

Thank you for coming back to me.

I understand a lot of what you talk about, however, can you please explain to me how
1) "Pain in hamstring or near buttock region may be due to associated sacroiliac joint involvement",
2)what sacroiliac joint problems are and,
3)if this were to show up on an MRI, what the treatment would be.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Regards
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