Last November I noticed that my hip wasn’t happy. If I sat too long or any length of time at all on a too-soft chair, it would talk to me. Then it started waking me up at night with sharp stabbing pains. I was not amused.
I elected to suffer quietly (okay, not so quietly if you ask DH2U) until standing up no longer made the pain go away. It was doctor time. Initial GP appointment led to a referral to physical therapy.
It took three weeks to get in. My doctor’s guess was groin pull. I thought it was over-tight glutes. I was closer – tight IT band.
I was given one stretch and two simple exercises to do at least twice a day. I was embarrassingly sore for the first few days of doing them. At times I couldn’t tell if my hip still hurt because of the soreness, but it would wake me up in the middle of the night to say hi.
Once I wasn’t sore any more, I added on three additional exercises and resumed my normal stretching routine. That was much easier than trying to figure out how to add in a whole other set mid-day.
Ten days out the pain was completely gone. I’m so proud of my body for responding so quickly, and for my Physical Therapist for getting the right diagnosis first try. I can even cancel my follow up appointment next week. I might as well give my spot to someone who really needs it.
I’ll continue with the exercise routine as is for the next week at least. Then I think my might switch up my evening set by adding in other body parts, while keeping the prescribed exercises in the morning. Since I’m now in the habit of twice a day strengthening, I want to keep it up as long as possible. Thank you hip pain for getting me to do what I kept saying I wanted to do.
Grown Up, Now What? 