Problems diagnosed as Osteoarthritis CAN be cured in some cases.

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If you're a proactive individual that's been diagnosed with incurable Osteoarthritis it's *possible* that you can in fact beat the diagnosis and get back to full fitness and functionality. It happened to me.

I should add that I was diagnosed at age 42 and was very fit and active at the time. I think it might be very different for older individuals, people who's condition is advanced, or people that don't enjoy exercise.

Here's my story. I can't make any promises that it'll be the same for you. But I will if people are interested share some of the resources that helped me to beat what I considered to be a life shattering diagnosis, for which I was assured there was no possibility of a cure. I don't know whether to believe I was misdiagnosed and never actually had Osteoarthritis, or whether they're wrong when they say Osteoarthritis is incurable. What I can say is that I was told my symptoms were 'classic' and that the diagnosis was certain - that my symptoms couldn't be explained by anything else. The whole area is so poorly defined and slap-dash that it's impossible to tell. Either way, it means there's at least hope of beating it if that's what you want to try and do.

I've spent 8 years battling against the people that were hell bent on brow beating me into believing I had Hip Osteoarthritis when I knew I didn't. My real problems were ignored - I was essentially left to rot. I was treated like an idiot. Told I researched too much. That I was in denial. Told that I was making my problems worse by training to keep myself fit, strong and active. Told I should swim and cycle and give up all other sports. I was asked repeatedly "You've had numerous experts try to help you - don't you think one of them would have succeeded if this really was curable?".

Finally I've been vindicated. I figured it out for myself. A simple, treatable muscle imbalance causing all of my problems. Obviously I wanted to let the people know that have tried to help over the years. I expected them to be amazed - a breakthrough that could help lots of people. These cases that we think are incurable can in fact be fixed!!

My excitement was met with apathy: [paraphrasing]. "The reality is that most people are inactive and unwilling to put in the work needed to address muscle imbalances like this. Even if the correct diagnosis was made, for most people the end result would be the same. People who are willing to put in the work necessary to reverse the condition are so few and far between that they aren't statistically significant to make it worth the cost of training and research. We were unable to solve your problem because we've not been adequately trained to do so. But well done for hanging in and figuring it out yourself."

Why wasn't I told this BEFORE I discovered the solution for myself? Why did they try to convince me I had incurable OA when they knew how determined I was to beat it?

Here's the reality as I now understand it (as it's been explained to me). This may not reflect every health professionals view, but it is a summary of what I've been told by various health professionals:

GP's are responsible for diagnosing OA. Yet they know very little about bio mechanics (unless they've got an interest and educate themselves).

They don't understand the condition in great detail, but they don't need to. They're working to a script. It seems not to be widely known who writes that script (so who to go to with questions or doubts)...which is a little bit of a worry.

Some know that often it's a misdiagnosis - more forward thinking GP's are aware that it's frequently a treatable soft tissue issue. But like the physios, think it doesn't matter too much as for most patients it makes no difference. They lead inactive lifestyles and any attempts to restore them to full functionality will fail. There is little point in wasting resources trying to give an accurate diagnosis when the end result will usually be the same regardless. So OA is the 'catch all' category you put them in. There is no cure - you manage with drugs and operate if and when necessary.

Even when someone is in great shape, keen to be proactive in their treatment and has an active lifestyle worth preserving there's nothing to be gained in finding the correct diagnosis as there is no one to refer them to to get it fixed. People worth bothering with (because they can be restored to a good, active life) aren't statistically significant enough to be worth the research and training needed to put systems in place to help them.

So, the GP's make the OA diagnosis despite not necessarily knowing much about OA. Who are the specialists then if you're determined to find the real cause of your joint stiffness or pain? Well, there's a bit of an oversight there. There is no one.

Orthopedic surgeons know about surgery. If your problem is an easily curable soft tissue issue they probably won't know enough to detect it. They may well put you under the knife unnecessarily. Or tell you that you have an incurable problem that will deteriorate over time - that your active life is over (that's what happened to me). But this is more a case of them forcing your problem into something that fits their specialist knowledge. Not a proper diagnosis.

Then there's physios. They aren't trained to detect and treat curable soft tissue problems that lead to joint wear and might otherwise be diagnosed as OA. However, some are better than others. Some might actually be very capable. It's pot luck. I think it's unlikely to find someone with these skills working for the NHS, but I may be wrong. I have been told (by a physio) that the failure rate in these cases is 99% within the NHS.

There are people out there that do know how to diagnose and treat these soft tissue problems. And there's plenty of info on this on the internet that you can use to help yourself. It's down to the individual to separate the wheat from the chaff. Contrary to what we are led to believe, OA isn't an incurable degenerative disease. Strictly speaking it doesn't exist. It's a 'catch all' diagnosis used to put people with joint problems in when there aren't resources and training to find out and fix what's really wrong with them. Contrary to what we're led to believe, there is no category of the medical profession with expertise in the multitude of conditions commonly labeled as OA. If you think you've seen an expert and had a reliable diagnosis of OA - think again.

There is no easy fix - that's true. There is no way of knowing if yours is a curable soft tissue problem without trying to fix it. I'm led to believe that official research into OA is centered around keeping this 99% of people that are deemed incurable (because they are perceived to be inactive and unwilling or unable to adhere to the required rehab plan), as pain free and independent as possible at minimum cost. It's simply not cost effective to put time and effort into finding the cause, the cure, or training people to make diagnosis and cure soft tissue problems in the cases where how to do so is already known by some.

But there are people out there that have figured out how to diagnose and cure at least some of these cases. Some speculate that all OA is initially a soft tissue dysfunction. However, this is mainly in the private sector - or perhaps in the NHS, but on an unofficial level. You're faced with the dilemma of separating the fakes from the real deal. Most will claim to be able to help - and many will diagnose incurable OA when they fail. That doesn't necessarily mean you can't be helped. Many tried and failed with me before I figured it out for myself.

But if you're willing to work at it yourself - or maybe even find the right person (which is very difficult) then it is quite possible that what you have is very curable.

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  • Posted

    Dear Susan, is the Trigger Point book you recommend the one by Clair and Amber Davies?

    Thank you in advance

    • Posted

      Yes - "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook".

      You can get it as an ebook, but I'd go for the actual book if I were you as it's so much easier to read it while you do it!

       

    • Posted

      Dear Susan, here is an update on my self-administered trigger point therapy, which I have been doing for two days, about half an hour a day.

      I can now walk upstairs normally, by putting pressure on the piriformis trigger point. The pulling sensation in my thigh vanishes. I don't need to go upstairs one at a time! I have no pain from the hips. 

      It has helped me so much. Many thanks!

       

    • Posted

      Fantastic news Claire!!

      Now why don't the doctors give out this simple, basic advice? I'm pretty confident that most - perhaps ALL - people diagnosed with OA would get at least some relief from this. It certainly can't do harm. With a bit of thought I'm sure it's possible to put together a little self-help checklist of things to try.

      Just from my own experience I'd say that you'll only make progress for so long then you'll stall. You need to keep working those trigger points periodically to keep them at bay. But you will only go so far with a given trigger point. HOWEVER - explore a bit more. You'll normally find some more - perhaps deeper, further along the muscle etc - and you can make new progress working on them.

      So pleased for you though.

  • Posted

    Hello Susan

    I just wanted to get back to you with an update because you were so helpful with your replies following my posting. I’ve read and re-read your comments because it does seem that your condition is similar to mine. What you said has really been helpful, although in my case it is the left leg which is much weaker and where I have the hip problems and pain issues. I’ve ordered the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook and following some online research also got a couple more which are E-books by Sean Schniederjan. One is called Cure Tight Hips Anywhere  which outlines some hip exercises and another which he kindly sent me directly after I corresponded with him is QuadratusLumborum  Fixed For Ultimate Low Back Balance, Strength and Comfort. The latter book gives some interesting exercises for a misaligned Pelvis – which I definitely have. When I do free squats my left hip is higher than my right and my whole torso is pulled to the right which I’m sure can’t be helping matters. I was also very interested to hear about your experience too regarding problems with varying corrective exercises. I have tried so many different combinations of exercises though and often they have made pains flare in various places. I think – in fact know – that I have overdone the various pelvis realignment issues outlined in Sean Schniederjan’s book … the QuadratusLumborum exercises make you work muscles I didn’t know I had. After a couple of days of these when I was trying to get off the floor I felt like a beached whale after a bad night out. It reminded me of a Dean Martin line “You’re not really drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.” I know the feeling. But with exercises of course you’re right - it will be a long haul and I just need to find the right ones and hopefully I might make some progress at some point. I have been searching for a NeuroKinetic Therapist close to home but as yet no luck. However I did visit a chiropractor locally whose has a clinic which also specialises in physio, sports massage etc. It was a free consultation and he was very straight and fair. After an examination he said there wasn’t much they could do for me. I had explained the host of different practitioners I’d visited and I appreciated his honesty in that he didn’t try and string me along just so that I would book further clinic appointments. I’m looking forward to giving the Trigger Point book a go and I’ll let you know how it goes.

    Best Regards

    David

    • Posted

      Thanks for letting me know how things are going David. I still haven't got myself balanced out. I've corrected enough to get rid of the hip problem but I still require regular maintenance because that twist in my pelvis hangs on for dear life! However, slowly but surely it does 'untangle'.

      I'm loathe to recommend this to people because the people involved are in my opinion a bit 'whacky' in their behaviour (but not the underlying methods). However, go to youtube and look up 'Functional Patterns'. I think a lot of the exercises that they prescribe can be really helpful. More so really for people that have a training background. Those without any background in fitness would probably need help getting started. They have a huge emphasis on rotational movements. Those of us with twists in the pelvis obviously have got into a habit of twisting only one way. Dynamic twisting exercises are going to be necessary to get this unravelled and restore rotation in both directions. I don't think Functional Patterns is going to provide a quick cure or fix as such. But that's what I'm basing my training around nowadays as I feel it will gradually move you towards better movement and posture. They have a book called "the power of posture". You could spend money for ever on this stuff, but it's perhaps worth consideration. Loads of free info in their youtube chanel though.

      Basically I think the key things though are trigger point therapy, finding lazy mucles and firing them up, finding weak muscles and strengthening them, finding tight muscles and stretching them. Retraining movement patterns to get everything firing up as it should. Probably in that order for the most part.

      Practitioners that I'd look out for (websites generally have lists of qualified people) are:

      NeuroKinetic Therapy

      Postural Restoration Institute

      Functional Patterns (I know they have people in London and the Liverpool area).

      But extreme caution with all because ultimately these people have invested a lot of time and money in learning the techniques. Cult-like mentality tends to prevail. They WANT to believe their methods work and they NEED to recoup the money they've paid out. But despite the warnings I expect they could offer something useful. I'd do a single vist to any that were near me to see what I could learn from them.

    • Posted

      The other thing I'd add is never underestimate the extent to which the root problem is far removed from where you feel the symptoms. No matter how many times you hear this it's so hard to avoid chasing after the tight bits - the painful bits. Almost always the problem is somewhere else though. Keep stepping back and looking at what is going on in the whole body. If something seems tight, weak, whatever - address it. Even if you feel it's completely benign and nothing to do with your symptoms.

      If you thoracic area isn't moving right your hips/pelvis can't either. If your pelvis is twisted then logic dictates that you have serious muscle imbalances in BOTH hips/legs. Even if you only feel the symptoms in one. So, in my case I had too much hip mobility and not enough thoracic mobility. Hips wouldn't stabilise until thoracic started moving freely. My symptoms are in my right leg but much of that turned out to be due to the muscles on the good side (combination of overactive and weak) letting my pelvis dip on one side -  resulting in my right leg 'landing' in a bad position and not being able to fire up the correct muscles.

      I can't stress enough how likely it is that the problem is no where near where you think it is!

      Good luck!!!

    • Posted

      Hello Susan

      Once again I must than you for the detailed response which you posted to me a few days ago – the time you put into giving people these replies I’m sure has helped and encouraged many of those with OA etc. In fact I think you ought to write a book – or at least a feature for one of the medical publications dealing with Arthritis because of your fresh approach and you seem far more educated on the subject than any of the so called ‘health professionals’ I have come across. Anyway the book on Trigger Point Therapy has arrived and I’m really glad you recommended it because it is so thorough and detailed but still accessible. I’m working my way through it despite my natural instincts to recoil from all the Latin medical terminology for muscle names  which does my head in a bit … but at least I know where Harry Potter got most of the lingo for his spells from. Also I take your point about the behaviour and mentality of some practitioners who have their own pet techniques for therapy … it’s easy to get sucked in when people are desperate for answers and a healthy dose of common sense helps to see through the smoke and mirrors. What’s great about the Trigger Point book though is the conscientious research which has gone into it all and I don’t see how you can do yourself any harm by trying it. I’m hopeful! Your pointer about the thoracic area got me thinking too and the source of the problem could well be somewhere else. It’s a bit like working on an engine isn’t it? When one part isn’t working right is can be really simple but tough to detect and meanwhile set of a whole pattern of other events which might be far more noticeable but isn’t where the problem started in the first place. At the end of the day we’re biological machines too aren’t we but at least the body will try and fix itself most of the time. With our quest for knowledge we just have to find the right ways to help it I suppose. Any way keeps up the great work.

      All the best

      David

    • Posted

      Thanks David - that really made my day!

      For a long time I've wanted to put something together. I've spent hundreds of hours researching, tracking down resources and so on - not wasted time because it's made a huge difference to my quality of life. But it's info and resources that everyone with an OA diagnosis should get to look at and see if it might help them too. Docs, physios etc aren't interested. I've tried.

      In this thread I've mostly just repeated stuff over and over and it's tricky when you can't put links to anything. Maybe I'll try and put everything toegether in a very structured way with all the links to resources - pop it in a pdf or similar then I can link to it in my profile and just tell people to go look it up there.

      This thread has got WAY too long and complicated to follow! LOL

      Thanks David smile

    • Posted

      You're welcome and I really meant it actually Susan. I think a lot of people would be interested in what you've achieved but  it doesn't surprise me the medical establishment wasn't  - I've always found its the hardcore researchers who do most of the innovative stuff anyway. You write really well and clearly and it doesn't have to be a medical treatise as it's the telling of your own story which is the key bit. As to structuring something to length  once you have a basic list of chapters and a plan for each you would be surprised how much information you probably already have. And if publishers aren't interested - what about an e-book? The one I bought recently about tight hips was basically in a PDF format with images. The pictures are often the trickiest bit with any editorial work but a few simple illustrations really help. I have to take quite a lot of pictures for what I do and a tripod with a digital camera on a self timer makes things very manageable usually.  And if the thread has got so long that must tell you something ... !

      All the best

      David

  • Posted

    hi susan. thank you so much for sharing your story with us. i was wondering if you could tell me something .... did the doctor ever x-ray or take an MRI of your hip or did he just do some manual tests and tell you that you had OA? i couldn't find anywhere where your diagnosis was confirmed with a scan.  i'd really appreciate it if you could tell me if OA was seen on your hip x-ray or MRI.

    i suffer from absolutely debilitating hip pain and i am 43. i know my pelvis and sacrum and spine are badly misaglined from an accident i had 10.5 years ago. i've been working to realign my pelvis and spine but it's been very difficult because i have fibromyaliga. i've tried deep tissue massage (thousands of dollars worth), structural realignment techniques which i've developed myself, stretching, yoga etc. the problem is that i walked my dog for 9 months (5 days per week) and since the last 6 months, the hip pain has gotten progessively more debilitating. i don't want to get an x-ray because i fear the diagnosis. i've been working on "if i fix the alignment, my hip will have a chance to heal". but obviously everything i'm doing is not helping that much.

    i really hope you still read this post and thank yo uso much for your time in advance. leesa

    • Posted

      Hi,

      I didn't have an MRI but I did have xrays. They showed degenerative changes and that, in conjunction with the manual tests is what they used to make the diagnosis.

      Interestingly, the degenerative changes were in both hips and worse in my good hip. I only had symptoms in the hip with the milder degerative changes. The reason I never believed the diagnosis was simply because of the way it came on. The diagnosis or OA just didn't make any sense. But doctors aren't interested in hearing this!

      From everything I've learned in solving my own issues, what I've read from others etc it sounds to me as if you are on the right track in thinking it's the twisted pelvis that's the problem. Certainly a twisted pelvis will cause symptoms that are frequently diagnosed as OA.

      I personally wouldn't have another xray or mri because chances are they'll find something wrong and try to pin all your symptoms on that. It's well known that there's no correlation between xray / mri findings and symptoms so until you give up on trying to deal with the alignment issue and consider surgery what's to be gained? The only good reason I see for xray/mri is to make decisions about surgery.

      These alignment issues are SO difficult to fix. I think the problem is that the whole body gets locked into compensation patterns and before long you get to the point where you can't unlock any single part of it because something somewhere else is keeping it locked in. Mostly I've been pretty pain free and that makes the task an awful lot easier. It's much harder to tackle when you're in pain.

      I'd stop paying for deep tissue massage and start doing self myofacial release. I've recommended the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook to others - I'm sure it'll be helpful to you too. This should help keep the pain under control and loosen things off a little.

      My feeling is that stretching is of limited use because often the muscles feel tight because they're weak, or because they're already over-stretched. Stretching just makes them tighten up more. Mobilization is generally better - just moving the joints regularly through available range of motion. But the main thing is to find the weak muscles and re-train correct movement.

      If you've still got cash left to spend then see if you can find someone qualified in NeuroKinetic Therapy near you. Alternatively, follow them on facebook - you'll learn a lot of useful stuff from them. I'm sure that if they could help you they would get results in a session or two. Their expertise lies in finding the weak/lazy muscles and getting them fired up. Then perhaps look into Functional Patterns and see if any of their exercises are helpful to you. They have loads of free videos on their youtube chanel and also a book "The Power of Posture" and a collection of videos "Human Foundations". I WOULDN'T go onto their facebook page because quite frankly they behave very unprofessionally. But the material is good. It's become the foundation of my training.

      None of this should cost a fortune. A few dollars for the books I recommend and the videos. If a NeuroKinetic Therapy practitioner is going to help you they'll do so in a couple of sessions. I spent thousands on a chiropractor that achieved nothing (and thousands more on a whole host of different experts) - I know how easily you can get sucked in by health professionals, but with these issues I think for the most part you need to be in the driving seat yourself. Perhaps getting a little bit of input from various professionals from time to time.

      Also, for the fibromyalgia - have you tried something like amitriptyline? I had a few months of nerve pain that wasn't fibromyalgia but similar kind of fascial pain caused by everything being stressed and tight.Amitriptyline worked, but at first it only took away night pain and left me with a lot of pain during the day. This didn't make any sense as originially it had been ONLY night pain. Don't disssmiss what I'm about to say - it can be in the mind. It was in my case. This doesn't mean you're imagining it. The pain is very real. But when you've had pain for a little while the nervous system can get screwed up and the brain starts to over-react to pain signals. Google for "Pain is it all just in your mind professor lorimer" - just understanding the mechanism of pain can make all the difference. If you think this could be happening with you let me know and I'll tell you how I resovled the issue. (I eliminated my pain overnight).

      I wouldn't give up yet. I don't think stretching/yoga is the best thing for these issues. Try some of the approaches I've suggested and see if you get better results.

      Good luck and keep in touch!

  • Posted

    hi susan

    thank you so much for your detailed reply. i really appreciate it. you are so smart and switched on. it's so nice to discuss this with somebody who understands and who is as equally motivated as me to help myself. i was doing alot of deep tissue massage myself too (hours and hours and hours of it) but recently just gave up on that and started stretching intensely.  i'll take a look at those suggestions but i can't take medications past asprin becuase i also have CFS and am highly chemically sensitive.  any chemical medications in the past have totally kicked my butt - giving me headaches, increased fatigue, stomach aches and nausea.  i grow my own vegetables and am a low fat/organic vegan out of necessity.  i was wondering if you have a youtube channel or the likes or another place where you share your information and experience past this post?  funnily enough since a couple of years i have mobilized my joints (tried) and just this morning i was loosening off my SI joints before i read your post. the hardest joint to improve the alignment of is the pubic symphysis funnily enough. it's a big joint and i have found alignment improvements from improving that in the past. but i wonder if it misaligns again with other stretches i do. my rib cage is also a mess because of the accident and i fear this also keeps me out of alignment - i fear the sterocostal cartilage has remodelled badly because of the accident and in turn holds the spine/diaphram out of the alignment. but i try not to entertain those negative thoughts too much - where i start thinking that all my efforts are in vain and lose all hope. it's true that when i stretch, the next morning i wake up as stiff as anything again. and i have given up on paying for deep tissue massage now after many thousands of dollars. yes, i have spent well and truely a house deposit on seeing chiropractors, physios, osteopaths, massage therapists and i have made more improvements to myself than they ever did. at one point i couldn't walk without crutches because of the misalignment but i improved that.  that's why i started walking ... because the alignment had improved so much. but obviously not enough from a hip strain point of view. 

    most days the pain is so debilitating lately that i want to get an x-ray to see if it's as bad as i think it is. but after the accident i had a doctor tell me that i'd had far too many x-rays (some were lost at the doctors office and they wanted to see more). so that's one reason stopping me from getting more scans. i know i am now sensitive to radiation and avoid mobile phones and the likes as well.  but part of me wants to know if it's as bad as i think it is. i live in outback australia and that's the other thing stopping me from pursuing scans - it's a long way to go to get an MRI or see a specialist. i'd rather die than have a hip replacement - honestly.

    i got a copy of a journal article last night entitled: "the reversibility of osteoarthritis: a review".  it's a 1984 journal article where the doctor says he's seen hip osteoarthritis improvements in a very old patient until that patient's death. i can send you a copy of that article if you give me an email address. i used to be a researcher before i had to stop working 6 years ago and still have unversity contacts who i ask to get me journal papers when there's one that interests me.

    thanks again so much for your time. i'm so grateful that you are there for us :-)  also, please could you let me know if you have a youtube channel or the likes that i can subscribe to if that's ok.

    bye for now and thank you so much again. leesa

    • Posted

      Hi Leesa,

      This is the only place where I share stuff in any detail I'm afraid - or at least, the only place where info isn't burried under lots of other topics!

      You're clearly very knowledgeable and have no problem understanding all of this so I'd recommend the following:

      1. Google sacral torsion and the testing/corrective exercises for that.

      2. NeuroKinetic Therapy - they have an e-book (amazon) that shows you how to isolate and test every muscle in the body for inactivity. When you find an inactive muscle just repeat the test again (which is a resisted contraction) a few times immediately after the test and that should fire it up. If you follow these guys on FB it'll start to make a lot of sense. They share some hugely interesting material.

      3. Delve deeply into Functional Patterns. Their valuable material is in the products I mentioned earlier and their youtube channel. They have hundreds of videos. I think you have enough background knowledge to make sense of it all.

      4. The Postural Restoration Institute have lots of great articles and case studies that help you to grasp how the twist in your pelvis can cause so many problems. In particular look at the articles that talk about FAIR (Femoral Acetabular Internal Rotation)

      Keep revisiting the trigger point therapy / Miofacial release. It can 'stick' and seem pointless, but for me it was a bit like loosening off a stuck draw. No amount of pulling would shift it so you just have to keep wiggling at it until it comes loose. I never got much progress with any single exercise or approach. I'd tend to try something and get instant excellent results then after a few days it'd stall. It would take something else to get things moving again. So constantly changing exercises. Roughly what's worked for me:

      - MFR / Trigger point therapy (a quick run through the tightest bits daily with a little extra time spent on anything that's particularly tight). Work on the WHOLE body as it's amazing the difference treating something far removed from the pain can make.

      - Firing up / activating weak or lazy muscles (NeuroKinetic Therapy is your best guide)

      - Daily mobilization - just quickly taking all joints through available range of motion.

      - Retraining correct movement patterns (delve deeply into functional patterns for this and experiment). Be extremely cautious if you get in touch with these people though as it's a bit cult-like. But the material IS excellent.

      - There are typically going to be muscles that you should stretch daily, but often not the ones you think. Experimentation again, but if it's not resulting in steady improvements it's probably not worth spending time on. If you react badly to it avoid doing it again. The last thing you want to do is stretch a weak muscle.

      Also, if you google for advice on how to test for what kind of sacral torsion you have then you should be able to find the corresponding corrective exercise. It probably won't do that much on it's own but it'll probably help to get things moving in the right direction.

      For me it tends to be a quick daily routine then a bit more time spent on whatever latest thing I'm experimenting with. That's got me close to 100% and certainly pain free and more active and capable than most people half my age! It will help so much if you can eliminate some of the pain because then you can start enjoying a training program that's keeping you fit and improving your condition at the same time. For example, even when I was really quite bad exercise such as running helped. I think perhaps the endorphins, getting blood pumping through the soft tissue. And of course, joints are nourished through osmosis - so USE of the joint. All difficult when you're in pain.

      As you can't take drugs then definitely look up that video on pain. Some of it is bound to be 'in your mind' (that will make sense when you've watched the video!).

      I would be interested in that article - could you pm it to me on here? I tend to not think in terms of OA though as my belief (based on my experiences, what I've heard from others etc) is that OA is a bit of a red herring. The fact that your joints have worn a bit needen't be relevent in the slightest. Doctors just have a habit of pinning any kind of symptom onto degenerative changes. Plenty of people live active, pain free lives with badly worn joints.

      All that said, some people do ultimately resolve their issues with surgery. But you don't want to go down that route at this stage and my belief is there is still lots of hope that you can find the solution by correcting the imbalance. In my experience anything that's going to have a positive effect will work quickly. So if something isn't getting results move onto something new. Keep trying things.

      Good luck.

    • Posted

      hi susan

      thanks for your detailed reply. i can't see how to attach a pdf file to the pm. is it somewhere i can't see it (the attachment button)?

      also, i know what my sacrum and spine are doing. in fact, for over 5 years i suffered severe nausea every day because of compression of nerves in my spine - around T4, T5, T6, T7, T8 and T9. T7 and T8 are pushed into my spine and sit too far to the left. that also places unwanted to compression on the rest of the spine and probably also keeps my sacrum jamming in torsion as well.   I need a cork opener to pull T7 and T8 back out. for the last few months, i've been able to reduce the nausea and compression of the nerves on my spine by doing specific stretches in my rib cage and spine. before that, the nausea alone was debilitating. but that's before the hip pain took hold. T7 and T8 are still deeper than T9 and T6 but not as bad as they were.  i can't help thinking how much the sternocostal cartilage issue stops me from improving hte alignment of my spine. in the accident i had direct impact on ice at speed to the right side of my rib cage and pelvis.

      my sacrum is - well i think the technical term is left on left. basically it's the opposite of what yours is doing. but to add insult to injury, often the left ilium also sits forward. and my lumbar spine also lacks proper lordosis. like the lumbar spine is alot straighter than it should be and it hurts alot to do lumbar spine stretches.  so not only does the sacrum sit back on the left, the ilium sits forward on the left (as can be seen by testing ASIS heights by laying down and bringing feet to bum on floor) and my lumbar spine sits to the right and shallow. that is putting huge strain on my left psoas muscle and the left side is where the hip pain is.

      then from about T11 to T 6 sits to the left then T5 to T1 sits to the right. there's a sharp change in direction from T6 to T5 and i think specifically that's where the nausea occurs - not down at T7 and T8 as expected. i think it's because of how the rib cage attachments are sitting in that area with such a messed up spine.

      i recall subscribing to functional patterns before on youtube but i'll have a closer look again.

      i'm reading all of your comments on this blog. i haven't finished yet. i'm about half way through.

      i've also started pressing into my groin in the painful spot with my fingers and a rounded part of a shortened broom stick handle. i use that shortened broom stick handle also for massaging my quads and legs at times too.

      yesterday i also started wearing orthotics again.  i tripped over my dog two weeks ago and landed all my weight onto my left knee - so that has also been sore and has prevented me from stretching as usual and the hip pain has kicked uncontrollably in. i don't think any ligaments are broken in the knee, maybe just some minor cartilage damage and strained ligaments - i expect it to heal in time. but what are the chances of that happening - i couldn't believe the irony given that the stretching was the only thing i was doing which would very temporarily ease the hip pain (for half an hour or so).

      anyways, i'm going to follow up that list you wrote down.

      i notice that i can improve the alignment of my sacrum very temporarily but then i can go to bed or move the wrong way and it's back to be severely torsioned again. same thing with improving the alignment of my left ilium. it goes back to sitting forward after some movement. it's frustrating.

      anyways, thanks again so much for your detailed response. i really appreciate it.

      i'll have another look for that attachment button on the pm or search the site to see how to do it.

      talk to you soon

      leesa

       

    • Posted

      I remember talking to a personal trainer (online) that had severe pain problems and other issues that seemed to originate from a car crash she was involved in. Hers turned out to be some kind of rib problem. It wasn't in the area that I've built up knowledge about so her explanation didn't resonate with me. But she did get a very quick resolution after years of grief when she finally found someone that understood the problem. Are you on Facebook? If so I might be able to track her down and put you in touch with her? Not saying all her symptoms are the same as yours, but just with you saying that you feel the ribs are somehow central to it.

      I expect there will be some fundamental differences in your case simply because the root cause is an injury. In a way it's easier for me because I know the movement / posture that caused the problem so it's pretty easy to figure out that I need to do the opposite of that movement to reverse it. Your root cause is likely to be more random due to the random nature of the impact. This lady could be a help to you and as a trainer she's got plenty of relevant background knowledge.

      Let me know your username on fb if you have one and I'll try and hook you up with her.

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