Lurching back to normality

[watervole]

 I'm gradually gaining on the bursitis

(I don't think that cut tag worked correctly, can someone remind me how to use them....)

 

Enter your cut contents here.

The injection a couple of months  ago in the bursa in my left hip definitely helped.  It meant I could sit down for about half an hour, which was a vast improvement on nothing!

And gradually making further gains.  The big catch was that every time I overdid it (I was able to walk for five or ten mins, which was good, but if I walked too far or tried swimming front crawl as I would normally do with  straight legs, then that could trigger intense pain behind my knee), I lost about three weeks of progress.

I was still having to lie down on the floor cushion for a fair chunk of the day, and to sleep on my right side at night - which means it's no surprise that I eventually developed bursitis in the right hip...

I got a steroid jab in the right hip bursa about a week ago, and that does seem to be helping further.  It's taken about a week for the right hip pain to mostly die down.  He didn't want to do two hips at the same time as that uses a lot more steroids (I already have osteoporosis and steroids are not good for it...)

The effect has only kicked in gradually, but it's definitely there. I suspect the right hip pain was affecting the way I was walking as I've noticed an improvement in the left leg pain even though that didn't get injected this time around. 
Bursitis can cause sciatica. The inflamed bursa presses on the sciatic nerve, causing extreme pain down the leg.

My walking range has now improved to about half an hour.
I'm able to swim more too.  Did 20 minutes earlier in the week. Went for half an hour today, but that turned out to be too much.  It's evening now, and my left hip is still very painful.

it's just a case of finding the balance. More exercise is good overall, but I need to scale it up very gradually.  The long term aim is to be able to drive again, but I don't think I'm ready to try that yet. Car seats are soft and tend to trigger pain quite rapidly.

 

 

Comments

[kalypso]

Sorry to hear you've had such a painful and difficult time, and hope it continues to improve. Glad you're able to swim. I haven't done that for three years, but I must go back to it once we've gone to press.

Re cuts, I seem to be using - I'll add that as a jpg in case it just turns into cut text!



...followed by the main text.

[galadhir]

Oh gosh that sounds terrible! Well done for slowly climbing your way out of that!

[kotturinn]

Ooof. Much not nice. Fingers crossed things continue to improve.

[igenlode]

A basic cut is just a literal <cut> tag, which will suppress all the following content under a (Read more...) prompt.
You can use a </cut> tag to end the cut, if you want to summarise a chunk of stuff in the middle of a post but keep the following text, or if you want to use multiple <cut>s with different description text to summarise several sections of post (in which case you use an open and closing cut tag around each section).

In order to add description text you use <cut text="description text here"> in the opening tag. Much the same as <p style="CSS style name"> when using stylesheets.

See the page What is a cut? How can I hide part of my entry behind a cut? for how to do it using the HTML Editor.

[ranunculus]

Hmmm. I switch to HTML and use tho admittedly that doesn't show text. I usually put the text before the cut.

[ranunculus]

M thought he was struggling with bursitis for years. Recently a specialist examined him and diagnosed tendonitis, not bursitis (or perhaps some bursitis, but the tendons were the worst). He said the symptoms are very, very similar, but the placement of cortisone a tiny bit different. According to that doctor lots of bursitis diagnoses (especially in the hip) are tendonitis. Certainly the adjusted cortisone injections were very effective. M's treatment includes regular icing of the area which has helped relieve pain and reduce inflammation. Current prescription is to ice several times a day even when the pain reduces. Like you he is supposed to start slowly and work up to more exercise. He's just started working with a physical therapist as well.

[eledonecirrhosa]

Glad things are improving.
Would using a step counter help to work out how much is "too much"?

[vera_j]

It is always so painful to read about your health problems! Because these ARE PAINFUL.I know that every improvment counts too. Also you are very brave and you go on working on yourself. Yes, I am really pleased with how you are doing!!!

[watervole]

Time seems to be the best guide. I note the time until I get twinges, and then don't go past that time until I can do it without twinges. At present, this is 20mins very gentle swim, or 15 mins total very gentle walking/rowing/ski (ie. no more than 5 mins on any piece of equipment and less than that if it twinges)

[watervole]

Bless you!

[watervole]

I'm definitely going to try regular icing. I've got a flexible gel freezer pack that seems to help.

[ranunculus]

Marty is finding ice and also heat (a heating pad) helpful. That is what I learned 40 years ago in a low level sports medicine class as well. On Dr's advice he got a trekking pole (could be a cane) to help with balance till the flare up is over. He is sitting in an upright chair not his lounger.
It is all starting to help.

[ranunculus]

Yes that too. How frustrating!