Any advice on pain relief?

Since everyones physiology and tolerance for both pain and pain medications is different, it is best to talk with your doctor. I have a pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder that flares up on occasion and I find hot baths, showers and massage helps a lot. I cope with Ibuprofin and a little marijuana at times.

I suggest calling your doctor, when me and my crush play soccer sometimes I get knee and shoulder pain, and 3 weeks ago we were out walking throwing huge snowballs at each other and I got shoulder pain I just use Ibuprofin it works fine for me.

An injury like yours is bad enough in itself but these injuries often set off a chain reaction in your back and legs as other muscles are used to compensate for the affected muscles in your SI region. I cannot recommend yoga and or Pilates enough to help stretch the sore muscles and restore balance to you back. There are Yogis that specialize in Yoga therapy that can custom tailor a practice that will help you heal.

You asked, “especially in the SI joint or sciatic nerve, what have you found alleviates it?”

Back support back support back support back support back support. Stop sitting on one side. Cut out all sodas, they contain bad acid and are counter intuitive for the response in your body to help calcium do it’s job with bone creation. It’s important to remember healthy cartilage needs healthy bone to rest on. Also cut out coffee, inflammation can cause increased pain with flare ups as we age. How is the fish in your diet? The amino acids in fish, eggs, avocados, tendon (as in tendon used with typical Vietnamese Pho Soup) these all help rebuild nerves in our bodies. You might want to take up yoga too, stretching is the minimal exercise most humans should do. They stretch out veins, muscles and overall create better blood flow. When sitting down, no hunching over. Also work on overall posture in life that helps from what I’ve heard.

Have you gone to a chiropractor? Usually they can tell you if you have some slippage in your spine you may be surprised at how common spines are misaligned. They can work on your spine and it may help the process of the healing.

@pleiades All good advice. I don’t drink soda or coffee already, caffeine gives me tremors. The fish, I love it but I’m sure could always use more. Sushi, canned tuna are staples, with the occasional baked Salmon.
I catch myself sitting in the car on only one glute regularly and have to watch that. In the past year I’ve noticed I push my ass back more than I should, so you’re right I should build my core strength and be aware of posture. I sleep with a pillow under my hips, that seems to help the ache.
The chiropractor might be agitating it, I’m afraid. I saw a physical therapist and she suggested if I use chiropractic I integrate massage directly after. The SI joint is actually an immobile joint, or is supposed to be, but I did shift the right side with the impact to the left hip in the fall.
How different is Yoga from Pilates? Any particular form of Yoga, or would they be equal in benefit?
Also, I duct taped two tennis balls together and lay on that. It seems to force the surrounding muscles to relax.

All good advice, to which I will add, cut out all caffeine, and I mean all of it. My partner suffered with severe back pain for years and cutting out the caffeine cured it almost completely.

@GloPro Yoga and Pilates are similar in that they both can offer stellar stretching and strengthening of the muscles and ligaments. If done correctly Yoga can be more gentle. When I herniated my disc in my back I first started with Pilates as it was a quicker way for me to strengthen my core muscles. Your core actually supports 80% of your upper body and when you have a weak core the back has to do more work to support the upper torso and when you injure your back a stronger core can take more of the load off the injured sore muscles and this at least for me afforded me much more comfort even after just 2 weeks of Pilates. Be forewarned it will come with some extra pain at first as you will be stretching place that will not want to be stretched but getting past those first few sessions, you should see results rather quickly. Just take it easy and honor your body. It is not supposed to hurt a lot when you do either. If it does you are either pushing it too much too soon or not doing it with the right alignment. There are lot of good info on the web for Yoga help for SI.

These links are meant for teachers but if you really want to learn a lot about the SI and injuries this link will tell you a ton about it. This link will tell you more about the poses you should consider doing with links to the poses for you to see how to do them.

Lie face up on the floor with your legs resting on the seat of a standard kitchen chair. Make sure that your buttocks and thighs are up against the legs of the chair so that your hips are bent at 90 degrees and your knees are bent at 90 degrees.

You’ll notice that your lower back, your sacrum, does not touch the floor due to the natural curvature of your back. Using your stomach muscles, gently press your sacram to the floor and hold it there for 30 seconds. Then relax for 30 seconds. Then do it again: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off for at least 20 minutes. Do this at least 4 times a day. But the more you do it, the quicker you will realize relief.

You can use a small pillow under your head, but don’t let the angle of the pillow cause your spine below your neck to bend. Your back below the neck must be completely flat on the floor—and in a straight line—and you must maintain 90 degree angles at all times.

A hard surface is necessary. A yoga mat or carpet can make you more comfortable on hardwood or tile floors, but more cushioning than that will make the exercise ineffective.

What you are doing is taking the pressure off the lower discs and sciatic nerve long enough to get relief and allow oxegenated blood to get to these tissues and repair them over time. It’s also good for the abs.

You can watch TV or read while doing this, but I don’t recommend placing any devices such as a laptop or DVD player on your chest while doing these exercises as this probably affect your upper spine just below the neck. Listening to music with eyes closed while breathing in deep through your nose and slowly exhaling through your mouth is the best possible thing you can do to facilitate this exercise.

This is a simple, easy exercise requiring no real work on the patient’s part. It costs no money, only your time. But best of all it is very effective if done properly and often.