The first thing I clicked on
after I typed in “Hip Impingement” to
google was Louisa Weeks Browning’s blog: http://myfaihippain.blogspot.co.uk/
I
still have it saved as a bookmark. I quickly found her list of symptoms:
Basically they were the same as mine:
1) Deep pain in the bum
2)Leg pain, side, front and back, all the way to my knee but never beyond
3) Sacroilliac Joint pain
4)Groin Pain - mine was a stabbing one, like a hot knife, on and off.
5) Hip pain, mine was around the side of my hip, like in a C shape
6)Muscle Spasms in my lower back and legs. Louisa described the areas of her spasms being the QL, multifidus, TFL and illiiotibial band. I googled these terms.
7)Pain that comes and goes, worse on activity. everything I did involved pain, bending and twisting when doing the housework, caring for the horses, decorating and gardening in particular.
8) Kept me wake at night. Far to many nights I have lay awake just starting at the ceiling with intense stabbing pains in my back and hip.
9) sitting in one position very painful. Doing anything that involved sitting for a long time like the cinema or theatre were a no go. Long car journeys were horrendous, I usually dosed up on codydramol before hand if I wasn't driving!
10) Louisa said that her pain limited her to 30mins walking a day, At that time I actually felt that after pushing through the morning stiffness and getting active walking the dogs at work eased my pain. For a long time I felt like walking was the only thing keeping me going, and the only exercise I could do really.
11) Hip clicking on flexion. Oh yes, it could be a party trick. I know the exact point as which my hip will clunk (mine is a clunk rather than a click, deep inside my hip)
Basically they were the same as mine:
1) Deep pain in the bum
2)Leg pain, side, front and back, all the way to my knee but never beyond
3) Sacroilliac Joint pain
4)Groin Pain - mine was a stabbing one, like a hot knife, on and off.
5) Hip pain, mine was around the side of my hip, like in a C shape
6)Muscle Spasms in my lower back and legs. Louisa described the areas of her spasms being the QL, multifidus, TFL and illiiotibial band. I googled these terms.
7)Pain that comes and goes, worse on activity. everything I did involved pain, bending and twisting when doing the housework, caring for the horses, decorating and gardening in particular.
8) Kept me wake at night. Far to many nights I have lay awake just starting at the ceiling with intense stabbing pains in my back and hip.
9) sitting in one position very painful. Doing anything that involved sitting for a long time like the cinema or theatre were a no go. Long car journeys were horrendous, I usually dosed up on codydramol before hand if I wasn't driving!
10) Louisa said that her pain limited her to 30mins walking a day, At that time I actually felt that after pushing through the morning stiffness and getting active walking the dogs at work eased my pain. For a long time I felt like walking was the only thing keeping me going, and the only exercise I could do really.
11) Hip clicking on flexion. Oh yes, it could be a party trick. I know the exact point as which my hip will clunk (mine is a clunk rather than a click, deep inside my hip)
I
Just couldn’t believe it. There was a list of ALL my symptoms, right in front
of me, but written by someone else! I mentally put a tick next to them. I didn't fully tick
number 6 until I had googled the words QL, multidifidus, TFL and illiotibial
band. Then I ticked it properly.
Incase
you to are wondering:
QL = Quadratus lumborum muscle in the lower Back:
TFL: tensor fasciae latae
muscle.
Illiotibial band the tendon along the outside of your thigh joining your
hip to the top of your knee. Basically the area where if I pressed, I could
make myself feel sick.
Heres a good pic showing the TFL & IT band
I was rather shocked. There were people out there with the same symptoms as me?
But I thought I was some sort of freak, no one else I talked to in "real life" to seemed to have my weird
symptoms and no one who has tried to treat me had ever mentioned this FAI thing
until Donna. Why didn’t the MSK or Pain Clinic doctor's mention this?!
I
continued googling and reading A LOT is was quite an eye opener to realise I wasn’t
the only one in the world that felt like this, that’s honestly how I was beginning
to feel!
To
start with it was over whelming to read people's descriptions of their FAI and
treatment. Lots of big words (so lots more googling at a tangent!) and lots of
scary pictures to. I found my way to the FAI face book pages:
I joined them all and became a bit addicted to reading them. Again, this was a
little overwhelming as well as now I was not only reading of people experiences but
seeing pictures of post op scars, their xrays and MRI’s. It was amazing. I was
also reading a lot of the problems people were having post op. It seemed
treatment for this FAI was not an easy fix with many people having lots of surgeries,
and lots of different surgeries too. It was a mine field to wade through, and a
very steep learning curve. I also found that many people also took many years
to get to a diagnosis of FAI, so I wasn’t alone there.
I came to the conclusion
that most FAI can be treated via key hole arthroscopy surgery, which meant a
few weeks on crutches. I had never been on crutches in my life and the thought
of that freaked me out. When I told my husband about it, he said “but what
about work? You can’t work if you are on crutches” He was right. I worked for
myself and if I couldn’t work, I would have no money. I would loose my hard
earned clients as well. Maybe I couldn’t get this treated after all? Or perhaps
there was another way. Maybe some sort of specialist physiotherapy could delay
the need for surgery?
Anyway.
I was getting way ahead of myself. I needed to get a diagnosis first.
Wonderfully thorough Caroline :)
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