tears in my hip flexor help!

[jelee1311]

A week ago I changed the saddle on my road bike and went for a 20 mile ride. It was hot and I did a few hills almost had a run in with an SUV no crash though. Monday I was in horrible pain on my left hip and groin and muscle weakness in my leg when I sit . It got worse onTuesday. By Wednesday I called my DR and PT but couldn't get in right away. Got into my DR on Thursday,she thought I had some tears in my hip flexor and wanted to do an MRI. I knew that would be very expensive and I wanted to wait. She took an xray and found nothing so that made me feel better. I saw my PT the next day and he was very concerned,he did a lot of tests then had my stretch and did ultra sound on my hip.it turns out my bach was locked up and my right hip was stuck. My PT said I coul do some stretching&swimming but no riding for another week. I'm just curious if there is anything else I can do and how long this kind of injury takes? I'm feeling 75% better already and have hardly any weakness in my leg. I'm feeling crazy because I can't ride& I'm supposed to do a charity ride in two weeks. Any advice would be helpful,I'm going back to my PT on Friday.

[Aquila]

I would do what your PT says because s/he knows your situation way better than we would.

Swimming (as your PT suggested) sounds good, because you can not stress muscles and such if you vary strokes and aren't too intense.

Good luck with your injury.

[Zippinalong]

Like anything else the healing depends on how bad the injury is and how well you take care of yourself. Listen to the PT and allow yourself to heal.

[KnottedYet]

People with injured hip flexors love to sit. Sitting puts the hip flexor on slack and is the most comfortable position to be in. They'd rather sit than do just about anything else (except lying curled up on one side). The worst pain is at the moment of injury, and it is very clear at exactly what instant the tear occurred. Whatever the sudden traumatic activity was at the instant of hip flexor injury (a position of extreme hip extension like getting the leg caught in a car door, leaping over something, falling with one leg behind, sprinting for the bus, etc) is the type of activity that needs to be revisited by the PT. You don't want it to happen again. The inflammatory stage lasts about a week after injury. Tissue repair stage lasts about 3 weeks, and final repair is at about 6 weeks.

People with bulging lumbar spine discs hate to sit. Sitting hurts horribly and gets worse the longer they sit. Depending what nerve root the disc is pressing on, they may feel pain into the groin, buttock, hip, leg, even the vulva. If the motor nerve is being pressed they may have weakness into the leg. They feel better standing or on the move.

[jelee1311]

Thanks all for your input,Knotted I was hoping you'd weigh in on this. Yikes my PT is concerned about my back but thinks its both the back and the hip but I don't have much back pain. When he first checked it my left hip was about an inch higher than the right. He thought I may have hyper extened my hip from the new saddle and I had trouble clipping in/out of my cleat when I was avoiding the SUV. Its amazing how much I can manage to hurt myself without actually crashing. I was planning on doing the Wave in Issaquah oh well maybe next year.

[KnottedYet]

Does your PT ride a bike?

[jelee1311]

He used to,not really now

[ACG]

Sorry for chiming in so late, I just saw this. I had a hip flexor strain and the PT didn't run/bike or anything. He played golf. He wanted me to 'sit it out' for like 6 months.

Anyway, my injury no where near what you are suffering. I'm sorry. I stretch every night, and noticed when I don't stretch my hip flexor about a week later I start feeling it again, so I stretch and stretch.

Good luck to you, I hope you heal swiftly.