Hip issues

[Catrin]

I had my first regular session with the new PT today. He thinks that the majority of my pain and problems are caused by a hip dysfunction caused by very deep weakness in the joint, the rotator part and very tight pitoformis ?spelling?) He said further the stretches my previous PT had me doing may have actually made things worse :eek:

He showed me that my hamstring pain remaining is actually from my hip - and I walked out of the door feeling much better than I have in a long time. He is using a combination of techniques and has sent instructions to my trainer. I finally feel like I am headed in the right direction :)

[indysteel]

Glad he's helping, and it's the piriformis muscle.

[Crankin]

That is wonderful, Catrin. I know what a frustrating journey this has been for you! It's amazing when you see the differences between physical therapists. My first one was a former racer, saw me for an hour each time, and let me hang on in treatment for way too long. It was "social" for us. She did help me, but not with a lot of the stuff. The second one I went to, for a neck issue, had 30 minute sessions, and he really annoyed me because he talked about politics and religion. But, when I didn't make progress, he referred me to a colleague in another office connected to his, who is MacKenzie trained. I was cured in 2 weeks.
I have an appointment for a physical with a new pcp in my physician's office next week. One of my things will be to get a prescription for pt. That is, if this new doctor can get over asking me things like "Do you get out of breath when you climb stairs?" which is what she asked me this week when I went in for a sinus/ear infection. Oy, why are athletic older women seen as freaks?

[OakLeaf]

So glad you're making progress!

[malkin]

... Oy, why are athletic older women seen as freaks?

Possibly because older women are generally invisible?

[Roadtrip]

Oy, why are athletic older women seen as freaks?

Oh, that is SO the loaded question. If your a young athletic woman who knows what she wants in life, she's most likely seen as intimidating (a *****), but if your willing to let the man take the wheel and go into "mom" mode you're constantly afraid you're getting squishy around the edge. The Mr "I-Can-Carry-An-Extra-Fifty-Pounds-But-You-Can't" trades up when his ego feels the need and leaves the mother of his children for Twiggy, leaving mom to hit the gym (or bike) to become the older athletic women who finally is learning to live with HERSELF... learning to love HERSELF.

Sorry for the rant. I've seen this pan out so many times with friends it makes me really glad I've found the kind soul I've found.

Shannon

[Crankin]

Well, I have had this experience more with women docs/medical personnel than men. I am going to give this person a chance, after I read her my "we need to be partners" speech, as well as telling her about my lifestyle before I get all of those questions. She even felt the need to explain the meaning of the word vertigo to me on Tuesday; really? I live in a community where 75% of the people have a college degree and almost that many have grad degrees. No vocabulary lesson needed. I don't do that to my clients, who generally are not as well educated. It's so demeaning.
This is the reason I've just been going for my gyn. physical every year and to see my rheumatologist. My (woman) gyn. is a 40 something tri-athlete who lost 150 lbs. in the process and my (male, 50+) rheumo. is a cyclist.
I may not be in perfect health (though I'm pretty good!) but I am at least 10 years older than this woman and just from a cursory glance, I appear to be in much better shape.
I guess this is just something that's an issue for me. I seem to do better with a group of guys than a group of women, in social situations where I don't know people. I've also had to dump a couple of female dentists/doctors, because they treated me like a dumb sh*t, but treated my DH differently. And if they don't treat me like a dumb sh*t, they tell me to "slow down and not do so much."
OK, we have totally hijacked Catrin's thread about her hip.

[azfiddle]

Catrin- I so hope this is going to be the solution for you! I hope you will be in great shape when your weather warms up for better riding.

I hope you will find it encouraging to know that I have been doing my exercises pretty faithfully since my hip issues returned in October. It took a while to feel better, but last weekend I rode 3 days in a row: 23, 38, 27 miles - the most since the fall, and overall feel pretty close to normal.

[Catrin]

Hijacking happens, I have done it myself without meaning to do so :) azfiddle, I am glad that you have made progress! I am a lot more hopeful now because I felt better after my session with the PT, even though he pretty much put me through the wringer. That, to me, tells me that we are on the right path, finally.

Just to help me understand how all this interacts together, I am going to do a little research on the piriformis muscle and the hips. I understand that it is one of the hip rotators, and my PT today said that my rotators are all playing a part in this. He said the weakness was quite deep and may well be a result of the protracted recovery period as my body was trying to compensate for everything.