Physical Therapy

As I sit here, writing this post, I am very conscience of how I am sitting. More to the point I’m very conscience on how my legs are positioned. Why? Because I am now in physical therapy for my right hip. It all started late last summer. I was trying to add more exercise to my life and decided to do the C25K (Couch to 5K) program. That’s where they have you walk for a couple of minutes then jog for a minute. You build up the time of jogging until you are jogging for 5K. Now, here is the funny (for lack of a better term) part, I don’t like jogging, never have. But I thought that walking wasn’t cutting it with my workout and I wanted to see what the fuss was with jogging. I thought this would be a good way to start, and actually I was quite happy with myself when I could jog for a few minutes straight. I researched jogging and the stretches you should do, and I did them properly and regularly after warming up with a simple walk. What I’m saying is I did everything ‘right’, but even so, I started feeling a pull in my right hip at times. Most of the time it went away and never bothered me. Then one day as I was doing the jogging part I could feel it pulling more than normal but I went ahead and finished jogging the last minute. I guess I shouldn’t have done that because my hip really started hurting then.

By now it was into September and it was around the same time I had a bad sinus infection and was dealing with the beginning of my white blood count issues. So all I kept hearing from the doctor was to rest, which at the time worked out well since I knew I needed to rest my hip too. Then one day, after sitting on my bed for a while ‘resting’ I stood up and turned and felt (and heard) something pull in my hip. I seriously thought I wouldn’t be able to walk. After sitting down I called my sister (hubby was at work and she can always handle me crying when I’ve hurt myself) and talked with her about it. We both agreed since I was talking fine, I could walk around without serious pain (just the pain I had had previously) that probably nothing too horrible happened. Since then though my hip has just gotten tighter and tighter. When I stand up after sitting for any length of time it hurts and I limp around until the kinks get worked out. I really didn’t think much of it (I always tend to compensate when I’m hurt) until Paul saw me getting up from the couch the other day and said it was time to get my hip looked at. I was limping quite a bit and hadn’t even realized it.

So today I went to our physical therapist (yes, we have a physical therapist that Paul has been using for a couple of years), she is the best. I told all about what happened and she checked my movement and said things are pretty tight on my right side. She gave me two stretches to begin with so we can figure out what’s going on. If things don’t improve with the stretches and tests, over the long term, then I would probably need to get an MRI to see if there is a tear there. Yeah, obviously I’m praying that the stretches help, that there is no tear and that I won’t need an MRI. Not sure I would get one anyway, unless things get worse. She really doesn’t think it’s necessary, but our PT always tells us all the information, which is one of the many reasons I like her. So I’m on a new physical therapy routine, we’ll see how it all goes.

The biggest issue isn’t the pain or the stretches it’s all the little things I’ve been doing to compensate for the pain, and I have to stop doing those things. The way I sit at my desk with my legs stretched out and crossed by the ankles, that’s a no no right now. When I’m standing and I shift to my left, a no no. When I shift to the left and I turn my right foot out to a 90 degree angle, a no no. I kept doing it right in front of her, completely subconsciously, then catching myself and we would both laugh about it. She said she’s going to let Paul know so that I stop doing it all. 😉 Oh, and of course sitting too long without breaks, a big no no. I’m happy that she said walking is very good and something she wants me to keep up with. No jogging but a good solid walk is a good thing. She said I’ve probably been compensating taking shorter strides, which I’m sure I have. So today as I was out running some errands after the appointment I made sure I was walking with full strides. And now that I’m home I’m watching how I sit at my desk. I can tell already, it’s going to be a long couple of weeks. 🙂

Right now I don’t have to give up my shoes with heels, but if my hip doesn’t improve I might have too. I have been wanting to get a new pair of black flats (with arch support) that I can wear with my pants, and I think now is a good time to get some. I do know walking around today in my walking shoes made my hip feel better than when I wear my boots with a heel on them. So maybe it’s time to switch to some flats for a bit. Of course I need to find some fun, flat summer shoes too then. 😉 Hey you’ve got to look for the positive in everything, right. 😀