Question
background: when i was 13 i fell about 5 feet and landed on my right lower back on the metal ring that goes around a trampoline...severe pain resulted...two years later i was seen by a chiropractor once...medical treatments were limited in rural alaska...since then i have had occasionally partial ruptured discs in the L area of vertebraes that heal in a few months on their own... i am 30  now

six months ago i partially ruptured another one, this one pressing into my spinal cord...after it didnt heal in 3 months i went to a chiropractor...xrays show my lower spine is twisted one direction, while the top half compensates by twisting the other direction, one L vertebrae is tipped inward from the fall which makes it easy to rupture discs partially...my hips were also three inches off of being level

i have had chiropractic care for three months now...the disc seems to be fixed as i no longer have terrible sciatic pain down my left leg, he says i'm 60 percent untwisted on my whole spine now...the problem is with my hips, he tapped my left hip back up three inches gradually and  now it hurts horriblyyy bad...i can barely put weight on it to walk, all the muscles hurt down to my knee, i canfeel a dip between where thebone now is and where my muscles seem to end, about 3 inches lower...

i have continued to work fulltime and my family has done most of the household work, my job can be done almost entirely sitting down, walked is worse than sitting but i cant put weight on both hips at teh same time, i lean one way or the other....is this normal to have hip pain like this? for there to be a gap between muscles and bone now? am i making normal progress or should i be looking at something besides a chiropractor? what exercises can i do to help my hip heal up? any other advice would be greatly appreciated...thanks

ruth

Answer
hi ruth-
wow, sounds like a confusing situation! Please remember that I'm not a doctor and it's hard to tell the problems involved without having seen you, etc... Having said that I will give you my best guess:

I'd say yes, you ought to see someone other than a chiropractor. Some chiro's are good, some aren't- I'm not saying anything at all about yours. But to trade one pain for another doesn't sound like an optimal recovery. Have you had an MRI or similar scan of your lumbar spine and pelvis? If not, may I highly recommend having one.

As for your hips being off-kilter- does it feel like a muscular thing preventing their being level, can you tell? ie, I had a hip that dislocated often for a couple yrs before i had it replaced. even after it was replaced, and to this day in fact, my left hip is higher than my right. I have to constantly remember to sit straight- and it's not comfortable to be straight, but sitting crooked screws up the alignment in the rest of my back...

The answers to your questions should be gotten from a doctor, i'm afraid- to have that much pain in your hips and to have one 3 inches off is not normal, you just need to figure out the cause and a more effective therapy (doctor should be able to assist you in this). Try stretching the muscles around your hip and back, try making your posture as correct as you can. I doubt this is a problem in your actual hip- more likely a problem in the muscles between your hip and back or perhaps a bone-related issue (resulting from that fall when you were younger or the history of partially ruptured discs). My best advice is to see a regular doctor and get their opinion of history, current scan and symptoms, best treatment options. In the meantime NSAIDs (like Advil)and applying heat and gentle stretching to the area might help reduce the pain.

Do be careful, though, with doctor or chiropractor or on your own- SCIs are permanent things, and not any fun!
Good Luck-
leslie