No arthritis

 Following on from the earlier post, and to answer Cherie and HH.....

I don't have arthritis, I've had x-rays and scans which showed no trace of it.  I do sometimes say it's arthritis, for simplicity's sake, rather than having to explain what it actually is.

It's something called Trochanteric Bursitis, although it's now called Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome I think.  Basically, it's inflammation in the fluid filled sac on the outside of the hip joint, although the pain also affects muscles and tendons around the hip.  It is very painful indeed, it causes a severe burning like pain from just above my hip down the outside of my leg to my knee, and sometimes beyond.  I can't lie on my right side (the affected side) in bed.....obviously I turn over in my sleep and the pain wakes me up constantly.  It also causes stiffness, especially when getting up from a chair, and makes me limp.  I can't stand on my right leg to get dressed without holding onto something, or I'd probably fall over.

It affects my posture, which in turn gives me backache - well, it makes my ever-present backache (which I've had since I had a slipped disc in my lower back at the age of 19) even worse, particularly if I've been standing in the kitchen for any length of time doing veg or meal preparation, or baking.  I can only walk very slowly, and not for any great distance - the pain gets worse and I get slower.

I've seen a GP twice - 2 different ones - both were sympathetic but not very helpful, just more or less throwing pills at me.  I can't take anti-inflammatories, I have an adverse reaction to them (it's on my medical record), so it's either paracetamol (which does next to nothing) or codeine.  I don't like taking codeine because it makes me very constipated indeed, and that just seems to exacerbate the pain problems.  Both GPs said a hip replacement isn't usually done for bursitis, and in any case would be a very last resort.  They both suggested steroid injections.....they don't do them in the surgery, they have to be done by a consultant or physiotherapist as it's important to get the injection in exactly the right place.  I was referred to physio - I've not yet seen one, but had an initial telephone consultation with one back in January - she said it's not up to the GP to suggest injections, that's their job!  And an injection wouldn't be their first choice anyway.  Before I could start actually seeing the physiotherapist, they were all taken off to help with Covid injections and all physio appointments were suspended.  I have recently had a letter from them saying although they are now back to doing face to face appointments, they have a huge backlog and will get to me eventually - when, they couldn't say.

The only thing that gives me a bit of relief from the pain is using a freeze gel or an ice pack, but both only lessen the pain for a short while.  I've got a TENS machine but that doesn't help my hip at all, although it does help my back pain a bit.

When we went for our flu jabs the other day, we were given a leaflet for some new service offering classes for things like losing weight, management of long term health conditions, and living with pain.  I was interested in the pain thing so went onto the named website to see if there was a class locally.....there isn't 😒

I can't wait around indefinitely for a physio appointment, so it looks like my only option is to pay to have some sort of therapy, hence why I'm going for this free Bowen taster session tomorrow.  I've had (paid for) osteopathy and chiropractic in the past, for my lower back pain - both worked (for a few weeks anyway), but gave me so much more pain for the first few visits, and I'm so fed up with continual pain, I don't think I can take much more of it.  The Bowen treatment is supposed to be very gentle.

Thank you for your concern, it does help 💜