Hip Injection #8...done

I was able to get in for an injection yesterday afternoon purely by the grace of G-d...and maybe a little begging on my part to "please take me out of my misery"!! Driving down I could barely sit, the posterior joint pain and lateral posterior pain (what I believe to be ischiofemoral impingement (IF) was really awful. Before I had left my house, I tried some pain provocation tests so that I could have a baseline and a before and after. I did a lunge with the left leg in front and on a stool, some impingement tests and some other movements of the leg. The injection was more painful than I remember it ever being, probably because I have scar tissue built up in there. Before the injection the radiologist tried to provoke pain, he did some FAI tests and they hurt in the groin, he could not reproduce the posterior pain but I explained that I had been able to earlier. He told me to check those maneuvers out again later. I said if I could drive home without pain I would be thrilled!! After the injection most of the tests he did provoked no pain anymore. I limped back to my car, sat down and panicked...the back of my hip still hurt. After a minute, I guess the drugs made their way back there and posterior pain was GONE! I drove home comfortably and happy. The IF pain was still there but without the posterior joint pain it seemed a lot more manageable. After 3 hours my "honeymoon" was over and the pain hit hard. When the kids were finally in bed I was able to ice for about an hour. I then decided to go to sleep but the pain was there so I went back for the ice and ended up falling asleep with it on until I woke up 3 hours later! This morning I think the posterior pain is better, the true test will be when I get into the car in an hour! Keeping my fingers crossed

Why Why Why

Thurs morning after PT I was in the car and using the "water bottle trick", after about 2 minutes I began having anterior hip pain. When I got out of the car my psoas/ iliacus were in spasm. That's when I began to freak ot. I texted my PT with a desperate message. He called me back, said to stop doing that bc it was causing my femur to be pushed anteriorly and making the psoas try to stabilize it. He also said I needed to get my pain under control ASAP, I coldn't sit down. So I tried to get in touch with the OS office.....
Yesterday I iced, took Vicodin, Motrin....Was in a lot of pain. I was up in the middle of the night icing and medicating...its been rough.
I finally spoke to the PA today, he called in Celebrex for me and I am going to try to get a cortisone injection next week into the joint to calm things down. He said the psoas is going into spasm to stabilize. I don't like this one bit.

Still No Answers

I got home from PT last night with more questions than answers. My PT thinks the hip is loose and and lax,this is about all I got. I am also really weak in the glutes, he is not sure if it is a straight out weakness or if they re inhibited by pain. The rest kind of went in one ear and out the other. I am so overwhelmed with all of this that I cant even process anymore. He thinks there may be a coverage issue somewhere (don't ask me where) but I could be getting pinching from some sort of impingement posteriorly. Honestly, this is all too much for me to handle. I was doing a lunge yesterday (just to demonstrate for a patient) with the good leg, the bad leg was behind me, in extension. This set off so much pain I think I saw stars and almost passed out in the middle of my office. My PT wanted me to try that with a posterior pelvic tilt and an anterior pelvic tilt to see if one was better, I was too scared to reproduce that pain again that I couldn't do it. He thinks I may need a stress test to check for laxity in the hip, I'm not sure what this would accomplish, or what it entails, I was too scared to ask.
In the meantime he gave me one exercise to do at home, a standing hip abduction with my hip in IR. He also told me to put a small water bottle under my thigh near my butt when sitting to make sitting less painful, it takes the pressure off of the ischial tuberosity.
And so the roller coaster ride begins, and the psychosis, paranoia etc. Because there will be days when I have no pain at all, and days that are excruciating, and it will drive me up a wall!!

It's Official, My Shoulder Officially Sucks

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since I had my AC joint injected and my pain is back full force. I guess I was dreaming when I had hoped to get 6 months out of this latest injection. I don't know what to do now, But working is killing me. I had someone in my office work on it today, I got a whole 90 seconds of relief...so not worth it!!!

Hip MRI #6...done

Yes, I had yet another MRI on my hip. Last week my x-ray was fine, over the weekend I was able to ice and rest and was feeling better. Monday the pain was back with a vengeance. I freaked out and emailed the PA from my OS office. He said to have an MRI and come in today.
Since this latest "episode" of hip pain started, I have been having a ton of anxiety and been having trouble eating bc I am so scared. I took (my first ever) Xanax on Monday night. this morning I woke up at 3:30 with my heart racing and my stomach in knots. By 5:30 I decided to eat something since my stomach probably hurt from lack of eating. By 6:30 my heart was still racing and I felt like I was going to throw up. Xanax #2 was a god send. It totally calmed me down and took the edge off. The MRI was almost relaxing!! It was the first time I was able to rest with no kids calling me, no blackberry, no work!!

Right after the MRI I went to see my OS. I explained what happened, and that I was having posterior joint pain. He looked at the MRI, the labrum and capsule were fine, thank goodness. There seems to be a little abnormality at the ligamentum teres, which could cause posterior joint pain. there is also irregularity at the quadratus femoris, which is what can get impinged with ischiofemoral impingement. I have not done all that much research on ischiofemoral impingement but I guess that will be on my to do list. It is an extra-articular impingement, he thinks its possible that bc I have some more motion now that that is getting pinched. But, I have pain in the joint with internal and external rotation, which leads him to believe it is being caused by the ligamentum teres.

The plan is to keep trying to ice and rest, go back to PT, in 2 weeks if its not better then we can discuss an injection. Where? I'm not really sure, but I'm hoping that PT can help decipher where the pain is coming from, and better yet, eliminate it to avoid an injection.
When I left his office, I was feeling better, less anxiety, but later in the day the pain got bad again and all of my anxiety came back....I don't know where I am going to find the strength to deal with this...again

##$%#&* Right Hip

Ok, so if you read the yahoo group postings yes, I am having hip issues again. At first I was having throbbing in my hip at night mostly. The pain started getting worse, it was radiating to the side of my hip, the back of my hip and down my thigh. It was for the most part groin pain though. I was trying to stretch it and stretch it since it is tight in the front still, and at times it bothers me that it is so tight. Yesterday, i was stretching it and got a good pop, which is not abnormal for me, when I had it in external rotation. Since then, I have a lot more range into ER, but when it gets to endrange, I have pinching in the back of the joint and behind the greater trochanter. I also have a ton of posterior hip pain, all the time, it hurts to sit down which is really hard for me.
I had an xray today, and of course I had no idea what happened to me (it wasn't until later that I was able to clear my mind and and remember these events, and even now, I'm not 100% sure if this is the issue). Thank goodness the xray was fine, no fracture or infection, which was a big concern of mine. As of now, my butt really really hurts, and ER, which used to be my position of comfort, is not uncomfortable. I am limping at times....this stinks.

Hopefully hopefully hopefully, it was popping of scar tissue, and now there is localized inflammation and it will pass in a few days. I will keep you posted!!!

The Good and Bad News

I had been putting off going back to my shoulder doctor for fear that he would want to order an MRI. The good news is that things looked bad enough on x-ray so an MRI is not needed. The bad news is that I am practically bone on bone in my AC joint and he is recommending a distal clavicle resection. It does not need to be done now, he did give me another cortisone injection, but warned me that I cannot keep having them, and I will have to have it 'fixed' sooner rather than later. I am hopefully going to get a long stretch of relief from this injection and not have to think about this for a while.

Popping In To Say Hi

I haven't bothered anyone with my woes lately, life has been busy, the kids are 6,5 and 2, and getting big! My left hip as always, is perfect. My right has been once again giving me some trouble, I'm not sure exactly what is going on, I see my OS next month, so we will find out then. My shoulder is a mess, I see the shoulder OS on Tuesday, hopefully for another lovely dose of cortisone!!! I just wanted to add a few cute pics of the kiddies and day hello!