Judith Proctor's Journal

 I'm gradually gaining on the bursitis

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

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.