a HIP mom - A Vertical Challenge - Part 2

Like I said before, that cortisone shot got me through ski season, my gym workouts and anything else I wanted to do. The one interesting thing that may have helped my hip over the winter was my chiropractor, however, each time I asked him if it really was my hip causing the leg pain and not the quad muscle, he confirmed what the orthopaedic surgeon stated.

I managed to get some good skiing in during January and February but not without falling. Back to the chiropractor I went for another quick adjustment. That’s when he saw my pelvis was out of alignment. He straightened me out and I decided at that time to lay low for a while.

You see, I have a terrible time staying vertical. I’ve fallen on the ice, I fall skiing, I took a fall in our gym and even fell down our staircase. I’m lucky I didn’t break my neck during those acrobatic moves.

Before I left his office, my chiropractor said to me. “You’ve been in to see me quite a bit since November, try to stay vertical.” It’s an on going joke between us.

During April break I had to take my son to the Cleveland Clinic to see one of his doctors, a trip we’ve made many times. After the 9 hour drive home I was ready for a good workout. Two days later I was in the gym and boy did it feel good …… until the next morning.  I’m very familiar with muscle pain from a good workout, but this was different. My left quad muscle was burning and the pain I felt had not yet introduced itself to me.

I spent the next 2 weeks sleeping with a heating pad, popping Advil and placing a European pillow under my left leg. I was not able to lay on my left side at all and when I laid on my right side, I had to have the pillow in between my legs.  I finally calmed the muscle down and was good to go. The warm weather was approaching and with the pool now open, I could get in to swim each day stretching my quad muscle out.

It was now the second week of June and while stretching out my quad in the gym, I managed to fall once again. While bringing my leg down from behind me, my pant leg caught on the bench press bar causing me to loose my balance, twirling me around like a ball being spun by a seal, and landing smack dab on my left gluteus maximus as hard as can be. At that point I thought I cracked my hip bone.

On June 10 I found myself, not at the chiropractor, but back at the Orthopaedic office requesting an MRI. If the chiropractor new I’d fallen again, he’d put me in an inflatable suit and I just couldn’t bear the thought of him knowing just how clumsy I really am.

The way my quad muscle was now aching I knew this pain wasn't going to leave anytime soon. I requested an MRI because my next thought was cancer. My father found out he had bone cancer because of the constant pain he had in his left leg, he also took 3 really bad falls, which was unlike him. Both my mother and I thought he was just being clumsy, not paying attention to his surrounding, little did we know.  I had to rule out cancer just to ease my mind.


                                                                                                (to be continued)