A year or so ago I posted something about my hip problem. I searched for that thread, but found only all sorts of irrelevant threads that contained neither the words “hip” nor “pain” so I will just give the update.
Symptoms: I would take a walk and, after about a half mile, my right hip would start to ache. If I sat (or even leaned against a pole) for a couple minutes, it would go away, but come back after another half mile. Since I was used to walking four miles to my office, this sucked. Then last fall it suddenly improved and I could walk downtown again, although I didn’t during the winter since I am too unsteady to put up with snow and ice underfoot. But I did walk in yesterday and felt fine and took a long with my wife today.
Yesterday, I read the wellness column by Jane Brody that is a regular feature of
the NY Times Tuesday Science Times. I generally read her with a grain of salt since she is often into mild woo (GMO fear, glutophobia) although she is solid on vaccination. But yesterday’s column was about something called “peripheral artery disease” that described my symptoms to a T. The same business about walking a certain distance and then being forced by the pain to rest and then being able to walk again for a while. It turns out that the cause is a blocked artery in the area and the pain is caused by a muscle being deprived of oxygen.
Treatment (accoding to Wiki) uses a anti-clotting drug called clopridogrel that inhibits platelets. It was mentioned that warfarin has no effect. Well, last summer I stopped taking warfarin for my atrial fib and started taking eliquis, a different anti-coagulant. Although I am always wary of post hoc reasoning, it is undeniable that my symptoms started to disappear when I started using eliquis.
Regardless of cause, I am walking again!
