As some of you know, I've been able to remove all of my remaining symptoms by doing the first stage of a stretch called "The Pigeon Pose" from Yoga. It continues to work wonders, but only on the days when I take the time to do it right.
This video added to this post by webslave in 2013
After experimenting with it for a month and a half, I've discovered a few things:
- When I do it right, it makes the upper part of my rectum itch in the 11 O'clock and 1 O'clock positions (where 12 is facing towards the front of your body (anterior) and 6 is facing your back (posterior)). In previous attempts, it created a pulling sensation there, but at most now, I get an itching sensation. I believe the itching is coming from tissue just outside the rectum. Possibly a muscle like the levator ani muscle, the psoas as it passes through the core pelvis, or ligaments and connective tissue related to them. It may however be some other tissue. I would love to do this stretch for a doctor in a vertical MRI so they can see what it is that is being affected.
- After doing this stretch I can sit for a day with no discomfort, and my pelvis feels "normal', and I had forgotten what that was like. That means no excessive sweating, no swelling feeling, and none of the awful pain with which we are all familiar. Oddly enough, the place where the 'itch'/pulling sensation occurs if a good 3 to 4 inches above where pain appears (on the perineum floor. rectum and testicles) while sitting without having done the stretch that day.
- Last year I went on a vacation to Britain and had a great time hiking around the countryside. When walking 10 or so miles a day, within a day or two I started to get an itching sensation in those two spots (mentioned above) and then my symptoms disappeared for over a month. (They slowly returned after that, although never as bad) I think this stretch is having the same affect as that extensive walking was having.
From talking with a yoga teacher and personal experience, here are a few preliminary tips:
1) In pictures of the stretch on the Web, the person is often showed with their front foot 'hooked'. Don't do this. Try to align it with your leg and stretch out the toes.
2) The rear leg should be DIRECTLY behind you. I have found that if it is not, that is, if it is slightly off to the side while behind you, the stretch does not have the desired effect.
3) Where as, in the REAL pigeon pose, you start to bend forward to increase hip flexion, what helps me is to arch my back backwards. This has a levarging effect on the sacral spine and the musculature attached to it.
Anyway, I encourage people who are doing Stanford/Wise-Anderson Protocol stretching or some other physical therapy regime to talk with your PT about this stretch. They can contact me if they want.
I am 100% confident in the effectiveness of this stretch with respect to my case. The correlation between the stretch and improvement is phenomenally good. It is as good, if not better, than the 'vacation phenomena' many of us experience because I can do it anywhere at any time. It can't overcome strong psychological stressors, however.
As requested, I've updated this post with some pictures and some commentary about them. Here are a few pictures from outside sources. Please refer to them!
And see your doctor about what is good for you or not. 
Here is the site this comes from: http://www.golfgalaxy.com/galaxy/dept.a ... ept_id=953
Notice her front foot is hooked, don't do that. And keep that back leg directly behin d you. Do not let it splay out to the side at all. I mean AT ALL. If you find your hips are very uneven, try putting your hands on your hips and pushing them to be even (hard to balance while doing this, though.) Then put your hands behind your head and arch your back. Try to keep your hips directly under you , but that is physically impossible, so just make it sort of a goal.
This woman has her foot pointed correctly:
For more information, here is the link to the site of this picture:http://www.jettymag.com/Spring2006/vita ... poses.html
This woman must really do yoga! Believe it or not,t he toe/foot position is
important because it sets up tension in the front leg. If you let your foot bend your set up the knee to set up the upper muscles to know maintain the appropriate muscle tension into the hips.
This woman is doing a great job in hip positioning and in getting her back straight up:
For more information, here is the link to the site of this picture. http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=55
Our goal is to deslope the back as much as possible by leaning backwards in this pose, but the reality is the pose probably gets its name from the curve of your back, hips, and legs, being similar to the slope of the pigeon's back while doing this pose.
Please keep in mind that in all of the pictures the people shown are very flexible and have their pelvic floor all the way down on the ground. I cannot do this and do not need to do this in order for the stretch to benefit me. I can only get my pelvis down to within a few inches of the floor. This is not critical. Do lower it as much as you possibly can and get that back leg back as far as you can, and then raise up your back and make sure to get your hips even at the end. Then arch your back backwards with your hands behind your head. That is key. At least, that is what works for me.
At this time, I cannot form any good hypotheses for why this works. It might be muscle TPs up in the pevis with no external access. It might be sacral spine positioning. It might be ligament agitation or nerve pinching around ligaments. It is hard to say. But if any doctor was interested, I could reproduce the effect in a laboratory and we could determine what is going on up there.
