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Went to my osteopath the other night as I had what I though were some tight muscles / tendons, but he has found that I have osteoarthritis in one of my hips. Apparently I'm younger than is usual for this to develop, and he suspects that part of it has arisen from excess wear and tear as I used to do a fair bit of fell running / racing.
Anyhow, I must admit it's left me feeling somewhat concerned about how quickly it might progress, how painful it's going to get, and most of all what activities it's going to limit. I have an awful image of elderly people being hardly able to move for pain, and I couldn't face that. But having said that I also found an account from a young woman about my age who was a keen climber, had osteoarthritis and had to have a hip replacement, and was back climbing again after 6 months.
I'm being referred for x-rays and have a range of specific exercises, and the only activity my osteopath has said not to do is running. But has anyone got any experience of hip arthritis and cycling / biking? Its not painful to cycle at the the moment, but I do struggle with my road bike to (ahem) get my leg over!
Got lots of questions (which I'll be disussing with my osteopath), but any experience / advice from the STW hive would much appreciated. (Positive accounts would be great - I've already had one somewhat sleepless night of dispair!) I want to try and think of positive responses to this, not focus on the negatives, so apart from now thinking of doing all the big adventures / silly rash fun things etc I want over the next few years, is there any other useful action I can take?
I don't know about hips, but I have the same deal with my ankle following an accident ten years ago. It's knackered, and it's not going to get better.
The only advice I can give is to not let it stop you doing what you want to do. I have to make sacrifices day to day, can't walk too far, if I need to run for the bus I'll miss the bus. Can't do busy pubs where I need to stand. Any of those will have me struggling for a few days afterwards. But I still ride hard and often. It hurts, but I've tried the alternative - giving up that which I love - and that hurts far more.
Unlike ankles though, they can replace hips. I'm facing a fusion at some indeterminate time in the future (apparently I'll be glad to have it by the time I need to have it), and the more I wear it out now the sooner this will happen. But I'm not going to sit by saving myself for a future I don't even know I'll be here for.
Bollox to making hay - ride while the sun shines.
Trust me, if you love being active and you stop being active, it hurts far more than any joint can!
Rereading my post above, it seems really doom mongering. I didn't mean for that at all.
Osteoarthritis sucks - there's no two ways about it. It has changed my life, makes me realise the things we all take for granted. But to be honest it's only really as bad as you allow it to be.
When I moped around feeling sorry for myself and hated the fact that I had to mollycoddle myself, guess what? It hurt like a bitch. Yet when I got on with it and lived life as I wanted to live it, and did the things I wanted to do, it seemed much less of an issue.
Find your own way of managing it and just get on with things. It's not that bad, millions suffer it, you're in good company 🙂
Oh, and keep in good shape. The less you weigh and the fitter you are, and the healthier the rest of you is, the less the knackered bit will affect you. At least that's what I've found.
Get a proper diagnosis from someone who is a medical professional.
Osteopathy might have its place but diagnosing osteoarthritis is not one of them. The scare he has given you might be completely out of order.
As for having osteoarthritus - I have it in my hands. I have had it for 20 years ( I am 50) and its only progressing slowly. don't worry and get a proper diagnosis
Your osteopath is working outside their scope of practice and is bang out of order. I would ditch them very very quickly as they are doing things that they are not trained to do.
As TJ says, get a proper diagnosis from someone who is qualified to give you it - that will exclude osteopaths, chiropractors and physiotherapists.
I know someone who has had two hip replacements and still rides a bike offroad most days.
Second what TJ said, but slightly different reasons. A friend started developing hip pain earlier this year, thought it might be osteoarthritis as there was a history in the family. Turned out to be cancer.
So as TJ said, the odds are there's probably nothing to be concerned about, but have it checked professionally.
I am 40 and got diagnosed with it it one of my hips about a year ago , and was told by the specialist that cycling and excercise was ok as it keeps things moving without too much impact, if you dont excercise then you gain weight and put more pressure on your joints. mine is due to my hip angles being too shallow and causing wear and that I will need both hips replaced at some point.
I was devasted me when first told , but now just get on with life and will deal with the inevitable when it gets here.
I have tried eliminating all sorts of things. movement wise , food , drink , biking , not biking , sitting position , standing position ,sleeping position, different shoes and there seems no real pattern to what can be painful one day and gives me no pain the next , so you just have to go with whats ok on the day.
I now have slight pain in my other hip somedays so it is obviously progressing , but as I wrote earlier I just take it day to day and do everything I used to .
Matt
Thanks for the replies - I'm certainly taking the approach of wanting to keep on doing everything (and hopefully do more!)
So who do I go to for an accurate diagnosis? I originally went to my GP who after 2 minutes just said, oh I think it's its proabably tight abductor tendons (after asking me hardly any questions) and to 'just stop walking on rough ground' (erm I spend every weekend up in the mountains!). So that was why I went to an osteopath .. but now it would appear that he's not qualified to diagnose this. Who do I see now? Is it something I can ask for on the NHS?
Back to your GP - say the pain is not getting any better and can I get a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon?
You need to get a referral from your GP to a rheumatologist. Your osteopath might be right, who knows, but one session with them wont tell you anything. Neither will one session with a rheumatologist. Find out more. I have a joint problem and am a long way from giving up on things. With the right management I've done loads of stuff, probably more than ever (3 Peaks fell, cx, ultra, etc). Even started climbing a bit again ...we'll see how that goes 🙂
OK firstly I'm not a dr (well not a medical one) what you need is proper medical advice. What follows will hopefully not be true for you.
or years I got pain in my groin from riding and was told it was a groin strain by various GP's, numerous physio's an oesteopath and , it always seemed odd to me that it never went away or got better espite the exercises, finaly at an age of 34ish it got so bad I couldnt ride. Eventually I got to see a surgeon who straight away diagnosed hip FAI http://www.hipfai.com/ in both hips and said I need an op on each or I would be facing a double hip replacement before I was 40. I was getting to the stage where I was worried about being able to keep working as a teacher. The surgery has fixed the problem to a great exent but I cannot ride a bike anymore and will still need my hips replaced at somepoint. Cant help thinking that had I been diagnosed sooner less damage would have been done.
go back to you GP tell him how much it hurts, say you are worried about being able to work and cannot seep at night due to the pain and you want to be referred to a hip specialist. If he refuses go back again the next week and say the same, tell him you are suffering from depression because of the worry and pain. If he refer you to physio do it for few weeks then go back and say it hasnt helped and repeat the above orbetter still just say you already go to a private physio.
good luck
Tell your GP that you want referred to a specialist and they'll refer you to the correct one hopefully. Orthopaedic consultant would probably be the best bet.
A mate had hip pain in his 20s, he's sent me this brief overview of his experience;
Sore hip, muscles overly tight massively tight tendons - flare ups of pain and tightness and then total failure aug 2003, excrutiating pain unmovable joint
Didn't go to see doctors/specialist till june the next year. Did see osteopath who tried his best to help with pain management
2 1/2 years of drug treatments to control disease (rheumatoid - but the damage done is the same) while on crutches every day etc no cycling as you can imagine.
Hip recoating op in march 2007
Back on bike within 6 weeks and still fine
Right, made another appointment with the GP for Friday - will try requesting a referal to an appropriate specialist (orthopedic consultant?), and hopefully take it from there. I know I have pain and restricted mobility in that hip, so something is going wrong, just want to have confidence in the diagnosis and then know how to move on.
In the meantime I have bikes to ride and mountains to climb 🙂 thanks especially to those of you who've spoken about the arthritis or other joint conditions that you have - much respect for how you are managing the pain and are still out there being active and having fun - just the kind of positive examples I need!