muscle soreness in thigh

Thanks for your response, Jen.  I will take your advice and shorten the time .  Worth a try.  I guess I am  very impatient.  Catherine

Thank you for replying, As I told, Jen, I guess I am very impatient.  Thanks again.

I think we are all impatient as we are tired of all the pain.  Hang in there, it will get better....

Irish & Catherine, Hold the horses!

Ifyou have pain that starts at your hip, is on the outside fo the leg and goes down to the knee and then stops that is almost certainly Tendonitis of the IT Band and for you Catherine it was almost certainly caused by the eliptic machine.

I had tendonitis of the IT SO BAD it turned into a permanent condition tendonosis, meaning it will never every go away without surgery. Tendonitis is little rips in the tendon, what you need to do is STOP whatever it is you are doing that is causing that pain and let those little rips heal up, if you keep doing the movement that gave you the tendonitis those little rips get worse, and develope scar tissue on them and then you are toast. I know I had that. We have a seasonal busy time of year so I jsut kept on working even though I was in pain and after a month when the busy season was over I went to the doctor, who told me I should NOT have doen that I should have rested the tendon.

In fact my tendonosis of the IT Band was so bad it was actually more debilitating than my deteriorated hip. I complained bitterly to my surgeon about my tendonosis of the IT Band and he jsut was kind of non committal, BUT during the hip replacement he must have went in there and did something because I came out of surgery FINALLY with relief. I think that is why he did the surgery on my hip on the side of my hip and not the front or the back becasue he went in there and did something to help me with that terrible IT Band pain.

You can feel your IT Band, if you put your hand on your upper hip where it hurts and press down and follow the pain you will feel kind of like a rope thing under your skin. You have seen tendons on a chicken leg, well same thing, you can trace it exactly with your hand. 

Please do stop any activity that is aggravating your IT band, let it heal and pray it heals. Going forward this will always be an Achilles heal for you, some activity will trigger it, always always protect that tendon and stop that activity until it heals back up again. From time to time I do get a very slight flare up of my IT Band but I know now, not to aggravate it by doing a motion that causes that pain. I know for example I still to this day cannot sit on a very low foot stool and get up, if I do that it triggers my IT Band, it is just pulling it and makingit flare. That one exact motion, getting up from this very low foot stool is what I was doing 20 times a day for a month during our busy season when I originally injured it.  You might find you may never be able to use your eliptic machine again, I pray not, if you caught it early maybe you will get full healing. But be sensitive to that pain if it reoccurs and what you were doing. Do not believe people when they say do stretching exercises, hey your tendon has little rips in it, stretching it is only gonna rip open any healing that is taking place and make the rips deeper. For tendonitis you REST the tendon that is the standard medical care, you don't push it with exercises.

Hi Jodi-France

I appreciate your information 

I will look into that further as everyone else says stay active and get muscles stronger again. 

Cortisone shot didn’t help for very long at all. 

Now waking up in pain every night.  It’s so sore.  During the day I can handle it but I am back on pain meds to get any sleep.  

The best relief you will get is with Diclofenanc pain cream. It works eally well on that IT Band tendon. When you rub it on you want it to work right away, you are in pain so you rub it in and expect relief within a few minutes, it doesn't work that way. It takes about 30-40 minutes to work, just when you think it's not working, it's too long that it kicks in. The relief doesn't last long but it is enough to allow you to fall asleep. Take over the counter pain medication + the pain cream and you can get enough relief to fall asleep. During the day ti will take the edge off but does not completely remove the pain. Good Luck. The cortisone shot not lasting long is showing you you have a very serious condition. I never got over mine, mine was only taken care of when I had my hip replacement, and it has been creeping back up on me in the last 3/4 days.

Thanks Jodi -France. 

I do use diclofenac cream. Have for about 2 years since hip injury sept 2016.  Injury is why I had hip replacement eventually as it caused or they suspect if caused the arthritis that advanced very very quickly. 

I have arthritic in my lower back, neck, and shoulder and take a diclofenac pill every day for pain so the cream helps some as I can’t take more then once a day.  

Tried stopping for 6 weeks last summer and couldn’t walk even with my cane as I tried prolotheraphy with a natural path physician.  I only did temporary relief.  The pain stopped after THR in March 2018 but now nvm and getting worse. 

He could not believe how bad I was without daily pill.  Actual I couldn’t either.  It scared me a lot.  

I am very active but the pain is so frustrating and stopping 

I will see about IT band as I need to see dr again. 

Thinking I want to get a MRI As X-ray doesn’t show anything but bone.  

It feels like the post in femur is causing pain to me but does go down the leg but not outside of knee always.  Most often inside of knee to ankle.  

Getting so frustrated as I was planning on having life back by know 4 mo this ost surgery. 

Thanks. 

"but not outside of knee always.  Most often inside of knee to ankle.  "

Ahhh that then is not tendonitis of the IT Band. Tendonitis of the IT Band is ONLY on the outside of the leg from the hip to the knee and it is more or less constant. Yeah you got something going on there, you are right to see your doctor.

Yeah diclofenac works really well for arthritis. But you have to be careful as it can wreck havoc on your liver if you take to much so always just follow the prescription, don't take more. Although i did use the pain cream more that was prescribed, I had to. But not the pill, I never exceeded the amount I should take.