Nine or so months ago I woke up at 3 am on several consecutive nights with pretty severe hip pain. I would get out of bed, walk around (without pain), maybe take some ibuprofen, then try to go back to sleep. I googled “hip pain” and the first autocomplete was “at night”. I was surprised to find it was a thing. After a few weeks it stopped happening.
Fast forward to today. I have pretty severe hip pain when I ride horseback. My ideal response would be to just not ride, but I’m my gf’s default riding partner, so I soldier on. Our rides are short, usually just an hour or two of gentle trail riding. It is unpredictable. One time it will be excruciating, then the next time it’s just mild discomfort. My first ride this spring was so bad I could hardly walk for 5 days, then I rode again and was fine.
This weekend I took 800 mg Ibuprofen an hour before riding and things were great, but then again, maybe things would have been fine without medication.
Ideally I’d not medicate, because I drink a good bit and cutting back on alcohol is not an option. Any medication suggestions on what would work best, given moderate to severe joint pain and alcohol use?
It could be any number of things… Torn labral cartilage, degeneration of the hip joint, hip joint impingement, muscle strain, lower back problems, knee problems… just to name a few.
I would go see a doctor sooner rather than later. The sooner you can have it diagnosed and treated the better off you will be.
I’ve had hip pain for over 12 years and after two surgeries for repair of a labral tear, I’m still having pain, so I am going to a 3rd doctor to have him look at the hip again to see what might be wrong.
My point is, get it looked at and fixed ASAP before you start to lose your ability to do the physical things you love. If you have a doctor who can’t figure it out, find one who can. Long term hip pain is not a good thing.
Just a data point - IANAD, etc. I was talking to a few folks at work who are around my age about hip pain - 3 separate people reported that they had had hip replacement surgery around the age you and I are (am?). Sooooooooo, there is that.
Yet another vote for “see a doctor.” 59 was the age at which I had my hip replacement. Of course by the time my surgery was scheduled, my hip wouldn’t articulate enough for me to put my right sock on without assistance. You may not need a replacement at all (or, you could have the same loss of range of motion a few years into your future).
If replacement is indicated, go with anterior approach. My recovery/rehab was virtually trouble-free.
I have a hip that gives me pain from time to time, though not as severe (yet?) as what you’re experiencing. My BP med leaves only Tylenol for pain, so no ibruprofen for me.
The first thing I always do is sleep with a bolster pillow between my knees, for a few nights. I was disbelieving when it was recommended to me, but once I tried it, it really did work. If you haven’t already give it a try.
Read up on the advances in stem cell therapy for hips and knees, it’s kind of amazing. Maybe that’s the future for people like us!
Well, I didn’t think of seeing my PCP, but I guess that’s what I should do. Thing is, I’ll tell him what’s going on and he’ll write up an ortho referral that will likely be a considerable wait. My last derm referral had a nine month wait, so I ended up cancelling it.
When the hip pain started waking me, I read about the pillow tween the knees thing, but saw no difference. Pain would go away if I was on my back, but when I fell asleep I’d roll back onto my side and pain would awaken me.
All this talk about hip replacement is freaking me out. Aging sucks.
Hip and knee replacements can be a crap shoot. About the same number of people I know have had not-good results as have had good.
My fall-back for any new joint issues has always been Absorbine Jr Vet Strength (horse liniment) and with Dover Tack and Tractor Supply both handy to you I would consider giving it a shot. I like the liquid more than the cream but that’s kinda a YMMV thing. From hip pointers to arthritis (diagnosed) that stuff has kept me out of pain longer than I care to remember.
PCP (if your insurance requires you go there first)
Orthopedist (start here if your insurance allows)
Physical Therapy - exercise, strengthening and correcting gait, etc. are often enough to solve the problem, especially if it is bursitis and/or tendonitis. Both fit your scenario.
Surgery - only if all else fails
Good luck, hip pain sucks. I had a hip replacement at age 52 due to several factors. If it comes to that, and it probably won’t, I heartily second kaylasdad99 on the anterior approach.
Yeah, a pillow didn’t work for me, at all. Too soft, doesn’t keep the distance between the knees consistent, I think.
I use a bath towel, tightly rolled, held together with elastics. ( About 3" diameter, 14" long, when rolled!) It took a little practice, to keep repositioning it through the night as I move around a lot. But after a couple of nights it got a lot easier.
I always favour a no cost, no med solution where possible. Maybe it’s worth giving it another try, for a few days, using something firmer?
I had hip/lower back pain that started as a twinge and got worse, caused by SI joint issues. Some active release technique (agonizing, but it works), fixed me up.
Don’t wait too long on getting started. It will only get worse if you ignore it.
My brother and a friend both had labrum surgery and it’s awful and extremely time-consuming to heal (a month + of bed rest). And of the 3 surgeries they had (my friend had BOTH hips done) only one really healed fully. They are only in their 30s so hip replacement was off the table for them.
On the other hand, my aunt has had both hips replaced (in her late 50s) and was up and moving around just fine in very short order. From where I sit, just watching the recovery of these people, hip replacement surgery is not all that bad (comparatively).
But the path isn’t direct from PCP to Surgeon, like **DoctorJackson **states. There could be a lot of stuff inbetween, including steroid shots and pain blockers, that could help you avoid surgery. And also avoid pain.
Also from seeing my brother, friend and aunt suffer through hip pain, it really can mess with your life. So don’t delay.
I use Aleve instead of Ibuprofen and much prefer it. I definitely have arthritis in my hip and have since I was in my 20’s. Take that for what it’s worth.
Water. Water is your friend. Your best friend. OK, my best friend. I’ve been taking aqua aerobics for a year now. Three times a week in a pool for 45 minutes where we work on flexibility and balance. Do I look like a nut doing leg stretches on a pool noodle? Why, yes. Do the neighbors think I’m nuts for standing in the apartment pool swinging one leg in front of the other? Absolutely! Do I care? NO. Why? Because my knees and hip hurt much less now and I don’t do my famous imitation of a crab just walking to the bathroom.
I’ve been struggling with back and hip pain for some time. I’ve had little progress on the back pain, but some improvement on the hip pain when I realized it may be coming from piriformis muscles around the hip socket.
I realized I was rotating my legs at the hips outward (toes pointing away from each other duck-footed so to speak) as I walked as I was altering my gait in dealing with back pain. And as I slept on my back I bent my knees a bit and rotated my legs at the hips so my toes pointed away from each other rather than up. Forcing myself to walk with toes pointed straight ahead was really uncomfortable for a few days, but then suddenly most of the hip pain went away in an instant.
Doc seems to think I had been overstretching the piriformis muscles with my altered gait and leg rotation while sleeping. Relieving that helped pain level immensely.
I had similar hip issues. First was a visit to PCP to schedule Xrays, & MRI to rule out arthritis, and such. Then a short course of Vicodin, then 12 to 24 sessions of PT. (no arthritis found) The pillow/bolster solution helps sometimes still.
Decided I would get a massage to see if it would help, because I worried about the expense of tests. Strangely, it took care of a pretty painful problem.
Each of the high level steps I listed can have multiple branches. The PCP and/or orthopedist will cover steroid shots and other immediate pain management steps, likely in conjunction with physical therapy. There are also branches from the PCP/ortho that include xray and MRI. It’s really not possible to list all the variations on care plans until the root cause is known.