22 years old with possible Osteoarthritis?

It's good news that he didn't suspect OA.

BUT - crazy for someone to say they don't deal with pain in multiple sites. You clearly have pain in multiple sites that is related. You don't stand a chance of fixing it if you just focus on one little bit at a time.

Why are your quads weak? It's part of a bigger picture. You need to address the root cause and not the symptoms.

Bonescans, xrays, focusing on one joint at a time - all no use. This is a way for people to make money peddling the things they know how to do. You need someone with the skills to help you address the source of your problem - and you need to find them before the useless ones have used up all your cash!

Why is your chiro/physio getting bone scans - what does he suspect? Has he diagnosed the exact nature of your muscle imbalances?

It doesn't sound to me as if you're getting good treatment here. You spoke of a kinesologist - I'd go see them before spending anything else. Hopefully they will have an understanding of how the body moves and how your symptoms are all related to a single root cause.

I visited my chiropractor today. I know you said they aren't ideal, but I've known her for a while and wanted some advice.

She suggested to me that yoga was ideal and could make good changes. She also told me that my issue wasn't congenital, but was structural meaning that it can be fixed. It definitely is a muscle imbalance and I'm going to stretch the crap out of myself in order to fix it

It's good news that you're getting support for the theory that it's all down to muscle imbalance. However, so far I don't think you've had good advice. I know I'm being a bit down on all the advice you're recieving, but let me explain.

Firstly, it's extremely likely that you have a collection of unrelated problems. The liklihood is that you have one root problem (a muscle imbalance) that's causing all of the the symptoms.

The first bit of advice you were given to work on a joint by joint basis is deeply flawed. You won't get anywhere doing that. You need to address the root cause. However, the observation that you had weak quads fits completely with knee pain so that will be a small part of your imbalance (that you should work on addressing). But it's likely to be a consequence of something else.

Yoga could be a bit risky. It's mostly about stretching and with imbalances like this, whilst some muscles will be tight many others will be overstretched due to everything being out of position. They feel tight but what they actually want is for other muscles to start working harder to take the strain off them.

From what you've said I can tell you without even seeing you that it's very likely you have twisting going on in your pelvis. That will result in muscle imbalances all over your body. The key will probably be to get the twisting out of your pelvis bringing your structure - your skeleton - into better alignment. This will allow the muscles to balance out around all of your joints.

To achieve this you need to first identify what is weak, what is tight, what is strong, what is lazy and what is working too hard. Then use the appropriate stretching, strengthening, activation and deactivation treatments on a muscle-by-muscle basis to coax your system back into working correctly.

This IS extremely difficult and as you're discovering, it's hard to find someone that can help you with it. If classes are your best option (more affordable) then rather than yoga I'd recommend pilates. Especially if you can find yourself a very knowledgeable teacher. A good pilates teacher will better understand about posture, movement and muscle balance and has better exercises at their disposal for putting things right.

 

I'll be going to an actual physiotherapist soon. Should I get an xray in order for them to get an accurate diagnosis? Or will a muscle imbalance fail to show up on an xray.??

Here in the UK they no longer use x-rays to diagnose OA on the grounds that there is no correlation between symptoms and x-ray findings. So an xray wouldn't help in ruling that out.

X-ray won't help in diagnosing muscle imbalance. Muscle imbalances can and do cause joint wear (radiographic OA) but this is not symptomatic in most people and nothing to worry about. It's unlikely that this will be present in a 22 year old but possible. The risk in getting an x-ray is that lazy health pros spot a benign abnormality and jump to the false conclusion that it's responsible for your symptoms.

X-rays won't help and could possibly hinder.

You have got muscle imbalances - that is certain. Your doctor didn't suspect anything else. The goal then is to diagnose the exact nature of the imbalances. Try and push the physio to look at your body as a whole. Tell him that you feel it is all connected as it all developed at the same time. If he doesn't pick up on twisting in your pelvis then suggest it to him. The reason that the twisting in the pelvis is significant is that if your pelvis isn't level then every joint in your body will be thrown out - guaranteed!

It will be a long wait until I get my bone scan results back. I have a feeling that if I do indeed have arthritis, I'll be absolutely crushed, mentally and physically. I'll probably quit my job and just prepare myself for school. On the positive side, if worse does come to worse, surgery is always there if I need a joint replacement.

I know itm ay seem like I'm worrying too much or what not, but I can't help it. Posting on here and talking with others eases my anxiety, so I hope people don't mind my updated posts.

I totally get the post updates - writing it down helps you to get your thoughts in order.

Don't panic over the shoulders - it ties in completely with all the other problems. Twisted pelvis takes both shoulders out of alignment eventually leading to shoulder impingement (bones in shoulder too close together and pinching or wearing tendons). Again, correctly balance the muscles acting on the shoulder blades and shoulder and everything will line up nicely and pain will go. I had terrible shoulder pain at one point - zero pain free range of motion. Now I can do 15 dead hang pullups - which isn't bad going for anyone let alone a 52 year old woman that a couple of years previously had severe shoulder dysfunction.

The good news is that physios are generally pretty clued up about muscle imbalances affecting the shoulder. They'll have no problem getting your shoulders sorted. The thing you need to push for is for them to acknowledge that the whole body is twisting - you won't have a complete fix until that is addressed.

When joints aren't tracking normally due to muscle imbalance they will come under a bit of wear and strain. So you have a possible bit of degenerative change in your knee joint. No big deal. When a joint wears a healthy body will set about repairing it. That repair shows up as degenerative changes. It's no more harmful than a scar forming on the skin. Stop the wear and it'll never give you a problem. Degenerative changs are only a problem when the remodelling gets so bad that it causes physical restrictions.

Like I said, finding someone that's got the skills to help you is tricky, but you 100% can recover fully from a muscle imbalance. If you pros can't get you sorted out I'll help you. Most important thing is to have faith in yourself that you can do it. You 100% can!!! You just need to be persistent and not give up at the first hurdle.

Good news that you've got the all clear from all of your tests!

Do a search for a book called "Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" by Claire Davis. This will teach you how to self massage tight 'knots' in the muscles. This isn't a cure but you will be able to relieve a lot of symptoms using this approach. Most importantly it helps you to realise that your problems are soft tissue related and empowers you by letting you see that you can help yourself.

I saw a physiotherapist today and he did a full and thorough assessment.

First off, shoulders. I can't remember teh exact details, but anyways. He noticed that there was a problem with my Supraspinatus muscle. The muscles are being pulled too far forward which is causing impingment. I need to do scapular exercises that will pull these muscles back into place and strengthen them. The pain in my neck and shoulders is as a result. My right shoulder is worse since it's my dominant hand. He didn;t suspect any tears.

Next is the rest of my body... He noticed a problem with my gait. I swing my right leg (symptomatic one) out in order to compensate for the muscle imbalance. If I don't, my foot will hit the ground due to my left hip being slightly taller. He also noted that the muscles all througout my right side were extremely tight and weak.

Since my glutes and hips are weak, I'm not bending properly, hence the lower back pain. There's a problem with my piriformis muscle which causes sciatic pain. Basically, he noted that there was a muscle imbalance and pretty much confirmed everything that you said.

 

That all sounds really good. I never managed to get a physio to look at the problem holistically - most like to focus on single joints. It sounds as if you've got a good one there!!

I'm pretty sure you'll make excellent progress with this physios help. All I'll add is to say that if things do stall and you're still left with some minor problems don't give up - even if your physio does. You should be aiming for 100% recovery.

That's excellent news. It really sounds as if you're in good hands now.

I just wanted to ask, how long did it take you to see noticeable to significant changes with your exercises?

My current physio has me doing the following: Clam shells to strengthen the glute medius and a core activation exercise to help activate the core which takes stress off of the lower back. It consists of me lying down on my back knes bent. Then I put my fingers on my lower abs close to my bladder, breathe in and feel for the contraction. I'm also doing a rotator cuff stengthening exercise with a band and a scapular activaton one.

It's been about 3 weeks