Knee & Hip Pain

Have had knee & hip pain for some years ..got orthotics in my shoes but dont really trust then and MRI scan shows no real damage in the knee..would anybody know a good physio or suggest any remedies ?....

hi there,
I like to run marathons and all kinds of running up mountains and 2 years ago i had hip and knee pain and went to all kinds of people to get physio and to see what was wrong and spent in the region of €2000. to no effect.

I was destined to life of no activity and nearly resigned myself to the fact that none of these people were able to help me.

The pain was in my hip but was stretching down along my buttock really badly and at times it went down along the leg to just below the knee. At night time it was really hard for me to turn in the bed and to walk was really uncomfortable.

Then i met this guy and i heard he was a physical therapist so i went over to him and he told me i had a muscle called the piriformis catching in my sciatic nerve around my pelvis and sacrailliac joint and that this was causing tightness in my hip area my buttock area and around my knee.

He gave me manipulation and i tell you he was really rough which was good as you don't need a gentle pair of hands to be coming down on you and hey presto the pain never came back for about 8 to 9 months.

The secret is though that when i was in with him he gave me one or 2 exercises to help recovery and they had to be done every day maybe twice or three times. you can't expect to go to a physical therapist and just because he manipulates where youre sore that you will be ok there and then, you have to exercise and stretch the joints afterwards and maybe go back for more physio.

As a result of that session i was able to start back running the following day and i attend his clinic every maybe 2 months for a sports massage. right now i havent felt pain in about 5 months but i do expect the pain to come back if i dont do my exercises and stretch properly but i will keep going to him for a massage. you will feel pretty sore after it but its only muscular. i will give you his name and number if you want just contact me and ill do that for you he is in the thurles area of tipperary if thats any good to you all the best for now

YOBR said:

Have had knee & hip pain for some years ..got orthotics in my shoes but dont really trust then and MRI scan shows no real damage in the knee..would anybody know a good physio or suggest any remedies ?....

Click to expand...

Hi
The orthotics you might be wearing might not suit you,the type of shoe, your age, weight or the activity you might be doing.
Orthotics work by improving foot function thus having a positive knock on effect through the kinetic chain. Orthotics are generally custom made to a cast,scan etc depending on what the clinicain is trying to acheive. however "off the shelf" Orthotics are also used to treat certain conditions. Now, I'm generlising, but when there is inside knee pain and there hasnt been any trauma or any real reason for it to be painful, it can be caused from having "fallen Arches" this creates tibial rotation (inward twisting of the knee) causing an increase in wear & tear and thus associated pain. If one "Arch" or foot is worse than the other, this can create an imbalance at the pelvic region, also causing an apparent leg length differnece. This can cause pelvic abliquity and will cause hip and lower back pain. Treat the "fallen Arch" and the knee/hip pain should reduce. This can take several months bearing in mind that Orthotics cant change a condition overnight that has taken years to acquire.
If your knee/hip pain wasnt reduced there might be some underlying reason. It doesnt mean the orthotics aren't working for you. Also,the materials used in the manufacture of the orthotics might not be right for you either. just a thought.
Hope that helps.

Seanieboy and Brianp.

Thank you for your excellent posts.

Seanieboy could you pm with details of that guy you mentioned in Thurles.
Brianp I am very interested in what you say regard "the kinectic chain" and naturally everything is connected so that makes perfect sense - I had spoken to a work colleague who had seen a "body kinectist" (i think thats the term!) but I hadn't come across anyone like that that, if anybody had details I would be very interested.

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=47503

Guys can you PM me any further deatisl also. Everthing described is exactly what I am sufferiung from.

No joy from GP, Physios, Chiro- X Ray and CAT all clear.
I know its due to slight differences in limb length and one arch more fallen than the other. I still do a lot of excercise but the problem is exasperated by the Repetitive strain of driving on my right leg.

many thanks id advance.
MB

Orthotists are clinicians who specialise in the design and manufacture of foot Orthotics and other orthopaedic appliances like knee/back supports etc to improve or stabilise limb function. Normally patients are reffered to the Orthotist through a hospital consultant , GP, physio, osteopath , chiropractor, chirpodist etc..
some physio's , chiropodist etc etc issue orthotics for their patients with good effect, but its the Orthotist that would have the most experience in this field..they would have more exposure to materials and equipment should the Orthotic require more modifications if needed to be done at a later stage.

monkeyboy & yobr.
Send a pm and i shall try to help where i can.

In fairness a couple of excellent posted replies here. However individual's anecdotes however true are pretty useless to solve an un-diagnosed injury.
The OP will realy have to try various specialists as suggested rather than taking any specific advice on this forum. From personal experience having run over 80 marathons and trained nearly 100k miles on the same pair of legs, ive seen many friends over the years spending long down times with injuries of this kind which were never properly diagnosed even though the visited lots of specialists and had to wait until things cleared themselves somehow and with rest eventually. Personally injured like this a couple of years ago and after trying various expensive specialists and physios, all of whom had different hypothesis of what the injury was ,and then treating the hypothesis only to find that it wasnt the problem at all, that I gave up and trawled sports science web sites looking for correspondence with my symptoms, came up with the most likely cause of the injury and its source, followed the recovery procedures suggested and was back running in a few weeks afterwards!
So much for experts. If you are visiting specialists insist they listen to YOUR description of the problem rather than throwing all their tests at you and forming an opinion of how you feel rather than just asking you!
Anyway good luck!
Runner