Trochanteric bursitis:
Before I was told I had bursitis I thought that the tingly feeling in my hip had something to do with my lateral scar from my baby surgery -- I thought adhesions were loosening up and scar tissue was dissolving and miracles were on the horizon.
Then I had an ultrasound and a look at that bursa, got the diagnosis and got the response from my OS that TB is not uncommon after a surgery of this type.
As with many of the issues I've dealt with since my surgery a year and a half ago, I formulated my own response to the bursitis because I was not interested in having an injection. I did lots of searches to better understand the anatomy of my leg and this type of problem, which does happen to people with "normal" hips that aren't THR or dysplasic.
I will say that my bursa was not *so* inflamed and painful that I couldn't do anything. I'd already been on a variety of anti-inflammatories over the months since the surgery and that hadn't had an impact, I probably tried ice on occasion, I'd already been through a 2 month period of doing nothing so it was pretty obvious that "rest" wasn't my answer either.
This is the part where my story will diverge a bit from where you are currently
Vida I was much further out from surgery and I'd not had any complications or WB restrictions. So, I decided that I needed to try to make changes in my muscles so that my body wouldn't have to throw up that protective bursitis response. Identify the muscles and IT band that needed more work in terms of stretching and movement to take the pressure off that point of the trochanter. I did the foam roller to stretch the IT band daily and also found some other types of stretches that involved different types of external/internal rotation of my hip joint. In dealing with TB I found that I also needed to focus on my gluteus muscles as they are what are connected to the IT band and can be tight and contribute to the IT band and TB issues.
I went back to PT and asked specifically for stretches and exercises that would target my IT band and gluteal tightness. I didn't get help at either of the PT practices on this for reasons I won't go in to, but I think that some people might have more success with this request from their PT people. I'd suggest that you speak about your bursa next time you visit with your PT people and see if they'll asses it and determine something they might be able to include in your treatment at this point.
The
TFL muscle is also involved in my bursa issue, so I try to help that little muscle in the front of my thigh with both stretches, massage and exercises -- it still seems to have suffered trauma from the surgery as my anterior approach weeded between my TFL and my sartorius muscles to get to my joint.
Lastly, I will say that I am hopeful that my adaptive yoga class will help with the stretches that we do in there. Time helps in some regards as well as my body has adapted, stretched, shifted and tilted around. I do still feel my sore bursa when I dig in to my hip area but it's not so acute that it interferes with my functioning. I like to try to support my body in finding a way to deal with a problem vs. having an injection which may only help with symptom relief but not the physiological reason behind the symptom.
Take care,
Cardie
Canada
