A little bewildered—but feeling vastly more informed—after this my most recent visit to the orthopedist, I couldn't wait to get everything down. If you're curious about the hip pain, keep reading; if not, you probably don't want to read the following exposition.
I didn't quite know what I was having an appointment with my orthopedist for, to be honest. I thought we had decided that maybe it wasn't a stress fracture after all, so what more could an orthopedist do for me? But I did have some other lingering questions since the PT appointment last Thursday—every time I told someone I had had a physical therapy appointment, they were curious what was wrong, and when I thought about it, so was I! So I figured, what better resource than this appointment?
To explain the confusion more clearly: after spending about 40 minutes doing exercises around the makeshift (but still quality) gym they have at the PT office, I was left with "You have a tight IT band. I'd like to see you in here once a week. Here are some exercises." [I don't know if I expressed how terse the doctor was before.]
So I created a list of questions, which I immediately (per my usual) wished I'd written down. I stumbled through the appointment. Below is a bit cleaned up.
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Q&A with Dr. Dave
Me: Well, Dr. Hank did some pulling and tugging and said I had a tight IT band...
Dave: Yeah, that's likely from being on crutches and staying off it—anytime you immobilize a leg, it can cause stiffening of the muscles and joints. It's also likely due to misusing the leg during the period you had a stress fracture—
Me: Wait, I thought we'd decided that since it still hurt after the crutches that it was possibly not a stress fracture?
Dave: No, well, the MRI definitely showed something on the neck of your femur, and the way you presented was consistent with a stress fracture. So we treated that and it should be healing by now. It doesn't hurt every time you take a step now, right?
Me: No, I guess not. [And there's certainly no severe pinching like before, I thought. I guess it's just healed, then, since Dr. Hank said I didn't show any signs of current fractures.] So then what's all this IT band business? [He cut me off here, but apologized. Good doctor.] I'm sorry... this is going to be a little anecdotal...
Dave: That's fine. Feel free.
Me: Well, I have this friend who was telling me about a very similar pain she was having. Her doctor told her it was bursitis caused by a tight IT band.
Dave: That wasn't the cause of your initial pain, though. That may be what's going on now, and that's what you're working with Dr. Hank to fix. Muscles just get tight. When the IT band does get tight, it's resting on top of a muscle called the bursa, which can get rubbed and hurt. [All the while, he's gesturing on his own body to show me where these things are located: outside hip, i.e. not where my pain is.] Had you come in presenting with pain over here consistently, then we would have known exactly what it was, and that wasn't the case, was it?
Me: Ahh, no. No pain on the outside of the hip. So is that at least what's causing the popping?
Dave: Funny thing, actually, the popping is actually called "snapping hip syndrome." [I knew this, but I placated him with some laughter anyway.] It can be caused by bones, but we didn't see anything like this on your MRI. It can also be caused by muscles, but again with the MRIs, there wasn't anything we were concerned about.
Me: Sorry about all the questions, I was just left with a lot, not really understanding what's wrong with my own body, you know. And Dr. Hank was sort of short...
Dave: Us doctors can do a bad job sometimes, assuming that our patients understand what is going on, when how could they? It's like me going to an accountant and him assuming I've done my taxes. So it's fine! Definitely ask all the questions you want. Even Dr. Hank will be more than willing to answer any questions you may have. And John, who you're seeing on Thursday, will probably tell you even more than you ever wanted to know without even having to ask. Knowledge is always good. You may feel that your treatment is going better if you're understanding what's going on. [Duh?]
Me: So is this something I'm going to have to contend with in the future?
Dave: The muscle pain? Like I said, that's just from immobilization and misuse. We do want to get you back to running, though. [Which is suppose is a delicious non-answer to my question. At least they were words I'd been waiting to hear for months. And surprisingly, they were the answer to my initial, unasked question: What am I still seeing you for?] But not just yet. [DAMN!] I want to allow time for the bone to completely heal and allow you to go through some more physical therapy. We'll start you back up running eventually, but what say we see you back in a month, after about four more sessions of physical therapy?
Me: Sounds great.
--Josh