I really appreciate your replies, Crystal.

RE: my SIJ. The PT said it was a little bit unstable on the right side. But there are no torn ligaments - as in ruptured or completely severed. The SIJ belt seems to help a lot and it's become more stable over the last few weeks.

I'm still at a loss as to how this could have happened. I didn't have any traumatic injuries (falls, car accidents, etc). But I did do a lot of walking (2 hours a day) over the last year. Maybe from that.

Oh, by the way, is it generally okay to do isolated glute max strengthening exercises to help realign the SIJ and hold it in place? Someone told me you don't want to do glute max strengthening until the SIJ is perfectly healed. That didn't make sense to me since the glute max - as I understand it - tends to pull the pelvis down and keep it level.