Question
Hi,

I have been experiencing chronic hip numbness (in left hip only) for about 13 months now.  It showed up breifly as a teenager and reappeared when i became pregnant with my now 4 month old son 13 months ago.  It has not gone away, and it is extremely painful.  I am 25 years old, no major traumas in my life that could have caused this.  I have seen a chiropractor for this twice already, and i am supposed to go back tommorow.  Is this something that chiropractic can even help.  I have a radiologist friend and she said that xrays would be a waste of time to see nerve interruption. what are your thoughts?

ps. chronic numbness with a feeling of sunburn , rawness, no abnormal appearances, deep pain, stabbing, burning, pricking..etc. please help. thanks!  clothing touching it does not cause this pain...but does proliferate it greatly.

Answer
Daisy,

Thanks for the question.

This is a difficult one to answer.  Your symptoms are simply hip numbness and pain as you say it is extremely painful. This is often a pelvic imbalance causing sacroiliac joint problems.  Chiropractic would be treatment of choice for the SI joint and pelvic imbalance.  Since it has been present for an extended time, it may require 12-18 treatments to correct. You will probably require 6-8 to begin experiencing improvement.

If it is not pelvic related, then you may need to pursue other diagnostics such as MRI or nerve conduction studies.  I agree that x-ray will not show nerve interruption, but it would show pelvic imbalance if present. An xray in your case should be taken weight bearing.

This is interesting given the explanation of skin sensation.  You may need to consult a neurologist regarding this situation.

I hope this helps.

Dr. Boss