last Friday I went to my primary doctor for my annual visit and took out my scroll of ailments to discuss and among them was my aching back and this new hip pain I have had since the start of summer.
Here is the deal… I have had lower back issues for years. I had an MRI done at the end of 2010 and found out I have mild stenosis and some other stuff in there. One of the biggest things for me to do was to get the weight off. Of course I then had my Gastric Bypass Surgery in January of 2012 – so I was hoping that would help alleviate some of the pain once I dropped some of the weight. Obviously that has not worked out for me as of yet – even after losing over 75lbs.
In addition to my lower back still being in pain, this past summer I started having issues with my left hip. I felt it the worst when I was out doing all my yard work like a landscaping slave. The pain was bad enough it went down my entire leg and ached like crazy. I also find at times I will limp to compensate for the aching I have there. Sooooo I dealt with it until I saw my doctor to see if he could make some sense of it.
I do have pain meds for my back which I also use now for my hip, BUT I try not to take them too much. I tend to take one in the afternoon to take the achy edge off and sometimes before bed so I can sleep.
So you would think losing that amount of weight would help ease the pain since I am not carrying so much any more right? That is what I thought as well. But then I came to the realization that yes I definitely helped my back by losing the weight, but because of that I have so much energy that I am also using it a lot more too.
The doctor told me the same thing – I am a lot more active now and also when you lose weight your body has to re adjust. My hip issues may be caused by how I walk now etc.. So with that being said he set me up an appointment to see an Osteopathic Doctor (never saw one of them before).
This is what they do: Osteopathic medicine is dedicated to treating and healing the patient as a whole, rather than focusing on one system or body part. An osteopathic physician will often use a treatment method called osteopathic manipulative treatment (also called OMT or manipulation) — a hands-on approach to make sure that the body is moving freely. This free motion ensures that all of your body’s natural healing systems are able to work unhindered. Sounds impressive so I was willing to see what they had to say.
My appointment with them was this past Wednesday and it was very interesting to say the least. I was tagged teamed by three ladies – you know the one doctor and then the residents. I love being used as an example – NOT, nah I do not mind just takes forever with all the explaining.
So they start by checking out my back and making me do the norm like touch my toes, walk and making sure I am not all crooked and stuff. I seemed to be ok, but again they had a few things to say about my lower back. Then on to see what was going on with my hip. After poking and prodding around they seem to think it is all coming from my lower back. There is this muscle called a Psoas Muscle and this muscle may just be what is giving me all this grief (stupid muscle !!)
Then they did some crazy thing of pressing where it hurt on that muscle to release the tension for me and I was shocked how much better it felt afterwards. So I walked out feeling a bit better along with a script for an xray just to check out that hip to be sure there is nothing else going on and I also get to go have some physical therapy as well. I am actually excited for the therapy to be honest – first appointment is Tuesday.
So here I thought losing all that weight would take away the pain, but it looks as though it has gotten worse. I am happy to say it is probably from all my exercise though and not all that extra baggage I was carrying around – sounds so much better so I will take it. Also note I have the worst posture and sit in a chair to work most of the day and I bet that does not help either. I have high hopes for the therapy and will keep you informed, wish me luck. Oh and that pressure thing they did lasted a couple days and the ache is back. Gonna make hubby do it for me later – they showed him how.
