posted
Last winter I slipped in the snow and di something to my right hip that resulted in bursitis and a subsequent limp that has never gone away. My right leg is now slightly longer than my left one. I was put on Naproxen for a while (3 months or so?), and eventually the pain went away.
But now it's back. It could be the cold weather, it could be my altered gait from navigating snow-covered sidewalks and parking lots, it could just be poor timing. Either way, it's started to hurt again, fairly consistently.
I know there are some Jatraqueros with backgrounds in medicine. I was wondering a couple things. First, is it possible that the cold is doing it, or how I'm walking? What the heck is a bursitis anyway? (I've been told what is it before, but not how it happens.) And should I make an appointment at Health Services here at school? And does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with my now different-length legs?
Thanks to anyone who has any advice. Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
I'm no doctor, but I'm an expert on snake oils and panaceas. But the cold is a common source of stuff like that flaring up. I think bursitis is inflammation of a layer of joint cushioning/lubricant.
Unfortunately the more pain there is, the more the joint tightens up, creating more damage, and more pain...
Pain causes the muscles to tighten because as far as your body knows, the pain could mean massive blood loss causing the problem. Massage from a good deep tissue therapist could help the muscles reset their tension-o-meters. That kind of massage stings like the dickens, though.
My husband would also make me take Evening Primrose Oil for the inflammation. And nag me about drinking enough water.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I sometimes get bursitis in one of my hips also. Inside your joints there are sacks of fluid called "bursa" (they are largest in your shoulders and hips). Bursitis is when these sacks become inflammed (and inflammed tissues hurt). In my case, there was no injury (that I could recall) that caused it and really no discernable cause for when it flares up. When it does, my orthopedic surgeon recommended that I take an anti-inflammatant (like naproxin - Aleve, or ibuprofen - Advil) to decrease the inflammation and, therefore, the pain. In extreme cases of bursitis, they can actually do surgery to remove the bursa (my mother had to have this done in her shoulders due to almost constant bursitis).
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Another thing would be to see an orthopedic surgeon and have him or her evaluate it. Physical therapy might be prescribed and it can work wonders.
My posture is normal now and my shoulders don't hurt. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I agree with the visit to an orthopedic specialist. I also recommend seeing a D.O., who generally has considerable experience in the alignment of the spine and other manipulations. D.O.s have training like a conventional MD and chiropractor all-in-one, but their technique in making adjustments differs from chiropractors.
Be careful with OTC pain relievers.
Ibuprofen (advil, motrin) and naproxen (Aleve) are the best pain relievers/anti-inflammatories, but can aggrevate GERD, ulcers, and other GI conditions.
I recommend 600-800MG (3 or 4 of the OTC 200mg tablets) of ibuprofen every 6 hours as needed or 440mg (2 of the OTC 220mg tablets) of naproxen every 12 hours.
As for the condition affecting the length of the legs, I too would recommend seeing a good osteopathic DO and or orthopedic specialist and having that evaluated.
Strangely enough, there may be more than one way to correct and treat this condition, and podiatry may come into play in the consideration of arch or lift supports that may need to be custom made.
But as we say in pharmacy, what doctors can't fix, codeine can.
posted
Actually, I went to the campus clinic a couple days ago to see what could be done.
Last time, all that happened was the 500mg of naproxen each day.
This time, they put me back on that (only ten day's worth, though), but they also referred me to the sports medicine clinic nearby, ordered an x-ray, and also sent me to the physio clinic. Hopefully between all of these I will see a real improvement, and not just less pain and swelling. It would be incredibly nice if I could lose the limp.
I'll be going to the chiropodist in May or thereabouts anyway (for a different problem), so depending on what happens with the physio and the doctor and such, I'll bring it up then. Although I'm not sure what a DO is.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
A DO is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. They have the same training a MD has, but from my experience, they also have more knowledge of (what were considered until recently) less conventional treatments (chiropractics, massage, herbs, accupuncture, etc.).
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
DOs have different training on how to treat the patient as a whole person rather than focusing on this or that aspect of illness, and they do a lot of preventive care. They learn special methods about using their hands to treat the musculoskeletal system to bring the patient back into better health. This is similar, but entirely different from chiropractors or massage therapists. They are often great docs for people with musculoskeletal problems or atheletes. I am not aware that they do much more with alternative therapies like accupuncture or herbs than the average physician. Although, younger MDs DO get lots of training in preventive care and a little bit of information on alternative therapies these days so in a lot of ways young MDs and young DOs have a lot more in common than older MDs and DOS.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
To update, I've been to physio a couple times and it seems to not be the bursitis itself, which is good, but some wonky muscles that probably went wonky as a result of it. One of the support muscles in my buttock has gone weak, and some others tensed up to compensate. So we're stretching and strengthening and loosening.
In other news, my roomie fainted yesterday morning. And we're not quite sure why. we went to the doctors, but they were so fixated on the fact that she wacked her head in the process and the nsuing migraine, that they never did bother finding out why she passed out in the first place. Are there any known reactions bewteen migraine medication (preventative) and a local anaesthetic (in the eye region)? I'm sorry I can't remember her exact med name, but I cna find out later....
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Regarding your roommate, the most likely causes of fainting would be dehydration and/or exhaustion. Does she diet (or is she obsessed about her appearance in some way)? I always think about anorexia nervosa in first presentation fainters, although dehydration is more likely.
Theca may have more accurate information, but at least in the young women I see, the only thing you really have to rule out is Long QT Syndrome (a heart arrythmia that can have bad consequences if left untreated). If they hooked your roommate up to a heart monitor at all -- even for just 30 seconds -- they could've ruled out Long QT already.
Best to check with her regular doctor, though. The job of ERs is to make sure there is nothing going on that could kill you (or threaten a limb) within the next day or two, not to manage long-term care. Ideally they try, but they just aren't set up for it.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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She ate, for sure. I have a passion for making sure everyone's fed, and she had a large dinner and then a plate of nachos the night before. She fainted while she was in the washroom early the next morning. She *might* have been dehydrated, but she usually drinks a lot of water. Definitely not anorexic, or any sort of dieter that would make her unhealthy. I cook half her food, and eat what she cooks.
We weren't at the ER, we were at the campus clinic, but you're right, it would have been better to have the doctor who knows her and her migraines and her surgery. See, she sffers from occasional, severe, migraines, and the day before she'd passed out she'd had a minor surgery on her eye. She takes preventative meds for the migraines (though whacking her head on our bathroom door as she fell kind of overrode those), and the best thing we can come up with is some sort of reaction between any meds she might have gotten during her surgery. The only tiem's she passed out before is froma demerol/gravol combo, and once when she gave blood.
I'm kind of scared for my roommate, and I don't want to have to wake up to that again anytime soon.
posted
When I was a teenager, I passed out from the combination of medication I was taking and a minor injury (I cut my finger). It was really strange, since that is the only time in my entire life that I've passed out. Perhaps she had something similar happen (i.e. the medication coupled with the trauma of her eye surgery made her pass out)?
posted
Preventive meds for migraines are usually pretty mild. However, one medication often used is a medication that is also for high blood pressure. IE, it lowers blood pressure. So it could be that the medication affected her more that particular day. Maybe she ate less the day before because of the surgery? Most surgeries require a person to not eat or drink for hours beforehand, and she might not have drunk enough fluid afterwards to quite make up for that.
It's also possible she was already getting the migraine, and fainted due to the sudden pain, or from the sudden onset of it.
She sounds like she is sensitive to pain and medications...she could have fainted from any number of things, really. Hard to say. Her regular doctor is probably her best resource.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
She's pretty sure the migraine came on *after* she fainted. It's possible, I suppose, that it was starting before, but usually her migraines have fairly predictable signs when they come on, and she didn't report any of them.
The surgery was early in the mornng the day before - a good 24 hours before she passed out, and it was very minor. She could eat and drink, I believe, before, and certainly ate and drank enough that night to make up for anything anyway. She's had the local anasthetic before with nothing like this happening. She *was* on migraine meds that messed up her heart rate, but she came off that one and onto a safer one months ago.
Aside from the migraines (which are generally 8 months or more apart) she is pretty tough, and can handle a good amount of pain. I really wish I had her to ask what the exact meds she is/was on, so I could give a more accurate account of the situation, but I'm at home and she's at school.
Anyway, thanks to everyone. I'm just going to have to try and convince her to go see the regular doctor this week. The one we had had the loudest "speaking voice" I've ever heard, and even when she was telling him she had a migraine and asked him to "shhh" as best she could with her slurred speech, he kept on being loud. Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
How long was she in the bathroom before she passed out? Had she gotten up quickly from anything? Is she known for low blood pressure anyway?
When I was a teenager I nearly passed out at school, had to grab the chair and would have passed out if I hadn't sat down. Teacher saw and sent me to the nurse. After finding out that I'd eaten a good lunch, she worried about things like a mild seizure and told me to go to the doctor. At the doctor I was diagnosed with hypotension, or low blood pressure, and basically told that other than the occasional fainting spell when I was sick or fatigued or at certain times in my cycle (or pregnant, as I found out later and did in public a couple of times, more to my embarrassment than anything else) my life expectancy was longer than the norm. So this may really not be serious at all. It is actually not uncommon in young women.
Posts: 3495 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
She'd been up for a few minutes, was standing in the washroom, felt nauseated, sat down on the toilet, felt a little woozy, and woke up on the floor.
She doesn't have low blood pressure or anything, either.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
It would probably be a good idea for someone to take her blood pressure lying, sitting, and standing (in sequence). This is helpful in determining whether someone is prone to having difficulty in self-regulating blood pressure in certain ways.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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