The Process of Elimination

I went into this last appointment without any major expectations. The last several appointments have not provided answers, so why would this one? To be honest, the last few weeks have not been altogether pleasant. The hip area has continued to hurt, and my exercise has been next to non-existent. Not to mention that all these doctor appointments tend to add up. Cycling may be an expensive hobby, but it doesn’t hold a candle to perpetually being injured.

As expected, there were no clear-cut answers, although the news was not bad. The process of elimination continues. On this trip, the doctor pretty much cleared my hip joint from being the culprit. My leg movement is fine going up, down and outward. It is when it goes inward and when pressure is exerted when it starts to hurt. Eliminating the hip joint is great news. That means means that this is most likely not osteoarthritis, and I’ll be able to keep my hip.

We are again looking towards the iliopsoas area. Since all of my previous MRIs have been of the hip joint, they don’t show what the doctor needs to see. So we need yet another one, the 4th overall in the last year. This will be focused on the pelvic, groin area, and will not have any dye.

The doctor didn’t speculate out loud about the diagnosis, but my guess is he is looking at Snapping Hip Syndrome. That makes perfect sense, and has been mentioned several times. In this scenario, the snapping happens when the iliopsoas b crosses over the hip joint. The sound seems to occur in the hip, but we know now that the pain center is in the muscle. It happens randomly when I move a certain way, like climbing stairs. It wouldn’t show up in the MRI of the hip because the muscle would be at rest.

I’ll be more optimistic for my next appointment on December 2nd. There may even be answers. It is very possible that regardless of the diagnosis, this will result in surgery. I’m optimistic based o where we’re focusing now that the recovery time will not be as bad.