Hip pain continued from previous forum...

[bulliedawg]

Before the interruption, I posted that I was having pain in my right hip. M_A_ Martin and others were very helpful and encouraging. To give context, my right hip started hurting in the middle of a ride, and was sore for a while after, and continues to be sore on occassion.

Well, I was examined and xrayed by a sports doctor in Athens, and he says that I have bursitis and irritation caused by a tendon that rubs over my tricanter (sp). There's not a lot I can do about it. He said that it will come and go, and he gave me a longlasting anti-inflammatory for when it comes.

I gues I am getting old (soon to be 37). This is my first age-related injury, and I hope it's my last, but doubt it will be.

sic'em

[Birddog]

Good to have you back, even if you aren't your old self. The bad news is this kinda crap crops up every now and then. The good news is that you get used to it.
Birddog Junior Member (probation)

[Tom]

"The Lore of Running" by Tim Noakes has a pretty good discussion of trochanter bursitis and stretches that will relieve it somewhat. You might have found one by accident: stand with the aggrieved leg behind the other, and thrust your hip sideways toward the side that hurts. When dbrk says you ought to take yoga, he's right.

Don't let anybody tell you that you should have any issues because you're getting older. Also, beware of docs that give diagnoses because "that's what he sees all the time" (the words of my primary care guy referring to the sports doc I saw). How right he was, but for reasons he never dreamed of.

Were the x-rays done standing or laying down? Personally, if they aren't looking for broken stuff, I think laying down x-rays don't show them much but I'm not a doc so I am probably ignorant.

[Kevin]

bulliedawg,

I agree with Tom. I had similiar issues with age (38) and knee pain. Stretching made the pain go away. You just have to become religious about the stretching. Do it every day. There are a series of hip stretches diagramed in a book called Serious Cycling by Edmund Burke. The book is published by Human Kinetics. Good luck.

Kevin

[sharky]

bulliedawg,
I used to have this problem and it turned out to be the shoes.
One pair of new shoes made my foot tilt to the the outside, I guess a little too much and would aggrivate my hip. Disappeared after going back to my old shoes. Also beware of street shoes that might cause this. This sounds like some kind of alignment problem to me.

[Bicycle Tailor]

Like Tom says, don’t just accept the Age excuse!
Look for the problem to be developing somewhere other then the hip...like your low back could be to loose, over flexion of the lumbar spine is a common problem w/ cyclists. Leading to overuse of the spine for flexion and under use of the hips. Your glutes can end up tight but not very helpful in your motion. Leading to pain in the hip and swelling in the joint from poor joint axis of rotation and strain on the capsule.
Sharkys shoe suggestion is also a good place to start.
Currently, inflammation is definitely the problem, so while high power anti inflammatory are helpful, they will help destroy the lining of your stomach and intestines, leading to worse inflammation all over as you get older...
Try Digestive Enzymes between meals to work on inflammation throughout the body.
Also... Look for food allergies, more people are intolerant to grains (wheat...) then you might think, such foods can cause more inflammation and pain then you can imagine.
Happy days

Ps. 37 is SO FU__IN' YOUNG!!!!! Line up your body and you will only get stronger!
Good luck
josh

[bulliedawg]

Thanks y'all for your considerate suggestions and encouragement. I am going to do some serious riding this weekend, and will certainly listen carefully to my body in the context of all the input you have given.

I'm so glad the forum is back!

sic'em

[M_A_Martin]

Inquiring minds want to know?

Did I notice in another thread that you've been doing inversion therapy for 6 weeks or so? Before or after the hip started bothering you (I know..obvious, but I was curious, I've considered the inversion thing..)

[kelmeboyAZ]

An MRI may prove more informative than plain films when it comes to hip pain. Etiologies of hip pain are many, plain films show only bony changes such as osteoarthritis, late stage avascular necrosis, fractures. Soft tissue or subtle bony abnormalities such as stress fractures/reactions, bony contusions, iliopsoas or trochanteric bursitis, muscle strain/tear, cartilage injury or joint effusions, gluteus medius insertional tendinopathy or tear, etc., would be revealed by good MRI. If the MR is negative for these, and if your orthopod feels it's necessary, then an MR arthrogram could reveal subtle cartilage defects or labral abnormalities.

[M_A_Martin]

But they are not reliable in the hip joint. At least that's what my hip doc told me after they scoped my hip.

I had the MRIs with and without Arthogram. Neither MRI showed any damage, (my second opinion doc saw a little bit of what "might be torn", but even he wasn't sure) when they went in with a scope they found the labral cartalidge ripped to shreds and the articular cartalidge damaged, but not detached.

If you have a mechanical issue with your hip (mine had a 'clunk' in it along with fluid buildup and pain with use) and you have MRIs done on your hip and they're unremarkable, don't take it as the final answer. I let my hip go two years before I had it scoped because the docs said they couldn't see damage on the films. The films were just unremarkable.

Of course, all of my films have been "unremarkable". I guess that's just me. And I do understand that docs have to sort out the needs from the wants.

That said, I wouldn't wish a hip arthogram on my worst enemy. No amount of local anesthetic can numb your hip enough to NOT feel it. Take a driver and insist on some heavy pain killers from your doc to be prepared for it. I can't take the pain killers, so the arthogram guy was working with just a local both times (he didn't get it the first time after seven tries so I had to go back for a second batch of seven tries)

[kelmeboyAZ]

We perform MR arthrograms pretty routinely in my practice and have few complaints from patients, only "that wasn't so bad!" The correlation for us with arthroscopy results for labral tears and even for subtle cartilage defects is quite good. Sounds like your radiologist was not the slickest technically. Also, we inject marcaine at the time of the A-gram as a diagnostic tool, if there's no improvement in pain for a short while after the arthrogram, then the pain is likely from an extra-articular source.

[M_A_Martin]

I agree with you about the radiologist not being the slickest technically. After poking around the medical establishment in the area I've found that he's the "go to" guy for that type of procedure. Pediactric docs even make a point to send kids to him because he's that good.

I don't really blame the radiologist or facility for not finding the issues on the films. None of my cartalige tears have shown up on any films, four different joints, five different facilities, same result. Unremarkable films. Perhaps I'm part vampire? Whichever, I don't see the MRI as a definite test.

I'm familiar with the marcaine test. However they couldn't "try that" with me on the hip as I had a doozy of a reaction when they did that to my shoulder and I didn't care to go through it again.

[Bicycle Tailor]

Happy Holidays everyone...

Just remember, Hip doctors focus on the hip...generally MRIs are of the Hip, this is all well and good, but remember... the hip is the anchor of the leg to the pelvis, the Pelvis must anchor to the Spine...since the spine is not a load baring column, the load must be stabilized by the core musculature...often unsolvable hip pain is the result poor core strength and control.
X-rays show symptoms of malfunctions. Solve the problem by making your core stronger, thereby placing less load on your hip....
Happy days.
josh

[Tom]

The doc I'm seeing for the hip thing now made a reasonable analogy which sort of goes along with the previous post. He says it's like a flagpole - lean it one way and the guy wires on the other side get tensioned. Do that long enough and you wind up like me with all kinds of strange symptoms in your hip. That's what we're trying to straighten out now. Stretching and core strength are a big part of his plan.

Without a catastrophic event bringing on the problems I'm thinking that this ought to work.