Thursday, August 23, 2007

Ewww, Gross

My hip clicks, inside the joint, it is gross. I have very loud, clicking knees, so at first, I thought it was my knees, but then, on closer inspection, I realized it was my right hip, a loud, painless click. It clicks with rotation. L took my engagement ring 2 weeks ago and I have yet to find it. I was emptying out every drawer in my dresser in hopes of finding it when the infamous clicking began. The clicking in my knees comes after years of pain and a finding of decreased joint space (at the tender age of 22), but with activity modification as well as footwear adjustment, my knees are no longer painful, just loud.

My left psoas has suddenly decided to rear its ugly head, it just tightened up and is limiting my ER. P will definitely have his work cut out for him tomorrow!! Why is that almost everyone with hip labral tears ends up with psoas problems. After my first scope, I had so much tightness for such a long time, my gait went slightly out of whack as I would subconsciously try to have a longer stride to get a tiny stretch in the psoas with each step. It did eventually resolve on its own, and it got bad around 7-8 weeks post-op, same as I am now.

5 more days until my injection...but who's counting!!!!

4 comments:

Funnelcloud Rachel said...

Have you had an OS look at your knees before? Were your knee problems ever thought to be related to the hip stuff? I ask because my knees (both of them - argh!) have been killing me for a few months now. It's not in the joint and of course could be radiating down from my hip, but at this point everything is starting to hurt and I just wonder if I'm going crazy! I worry about what is hip related and what could be a separate problem. I hate telling the dr. "everything hurts" but it's just getting ridiculous!

Susie said...

Ok, here comes a long answer (but you asked!!)
When I was in college and grad school, I actually had time to work out, and Spinning was my exercise of choice. I used to have terrible pain while exercising and then come home and ice (not too bright to push through the pain). In PT school, I had all the positive tests for a meniscus tear, and finally, the pain got so bad I saw an OS, he took x-rays which showed joint space narrowing and an MRI which did not show a meniscal tear but did show a joint effusion...and that was all I know. I never went back to him bc he was an ass, I never pursued this or found out why there was an effusion, his PA told me that it is bc it was an acute thing...well, it wasn't, it was chronic, and longstanding, but whatever. At the same time, it was pointed out to me that my feet pronate as I walk (my arches collapse when I weight bear), and this could be contributing to my knee pain, so I had custom orthotics made which helped a ton, my pain practically disappeared in the first week of wearing them. then I got pregnany with L, when I went back to school, my knees hurt a little, but nothing like before, so I had an orthotist I was working with adjust the orthotic and it helped.
After my first surgery, my knees started killing me like they had before the orthotics, my PT and I decided it must be due to muscle weakness and compensation, and it soon went away. Immediately after my second surgery, while on crutches, the knee pain came back but has since disappeared.

The pain is usually just medial (to the inside) of the kneecap, and sometimes just below the knee (medial as well), a lot of times it feels like a stinging pain.
My knees click almost everytime I bend and straighten them, and every single time I squat down on them. In my opinion, I am heading down the road to a bilateral knee replacement bc the cartilage is going to be very worn, but probably a hip replacement first!!!

Funnelcloud Rachel said...

No problem about the long answer...especially since I always hijack your blog with the LONG comments! And here comes another one...

I am quickly realizing that I could drive myself crazy trying to determine the connection between all my aches and pains! I do find what you wrote interesting though because I too have major pronation/arch collapsing issues. When I was about 12 I had orthotics made, but that was about the age I started becoming more interested in cute shoes and the orthotics only fit in sneakers, so you can guess how much use I got out of them. I never really had pain though...but it now makes me wonder about the relationship to my knee/hip/back pain...

Susie said...

Rachel,
First off, I have 2 pairs of orthotics, one for sneaker, one for 'other shoes', but not for sandals/ flip flops. I do well for short periods in platform flip flops (the Juicy ones are great), and crocs for the pool. For work I wear Danskos most of the time, or ballet flats occasionally.
Any dysfunction in any part of your body can easily throw another one off, especially the hip/knee/foot complex. Since you have a clear diagnosis on the hip, I wouldn't make myself crazy trying to figure out if there is a relationship to the pronation, but the pronation may come back to bite you while on crutches and while you are rehabing/ recovering bc of other muscle weakness issues that will arise.
ahhhhhh!!