Bursitis in Hip = no fun

[Moonboots]

Well, I’ve apparently sustained a minor back injury which has resulted in bursitis in my hip.

I took a few weeks off to go to take some anti-inflammatories, go to physio and just let myself heal. I was feeling much better! Went from “I can’t walk up or down stairs without supporting most of my weight on the railing” to “Pain? What pain?” and was given the green light to start back with light riding.

Then I got on a horse’s back and walked around the arena for maybe 5 minutes, tops. I felt like I had to apologize to the poor pony for dragging him away from his buddies, tacking him up, and then barely even getting his muscles warmed up before putting him away again. But that 5 minutes in the saddle was enough to make everything flare up again.

So now I’m back on ‘stall rest’ (no riding) until ??? and I’m just generally feeling frustrated that I could go from feeling great to a crazy flare up after such a tiny amount of sitting on a horse’s back.

I feel stupidly insecure right now, and I need someone to tell me that:

• If I take a long enough break, continue with physio and NSAIDs, and start massage, I WILL be able to ride again without pain
• I’m not the only one to experience a setback, and I should quit whining because it’s only been a few weeks
• Not riding WILL NOT cause me to lose my sanity entirely
• It’s not the end of the world if I have to take a few months off

I’m feeling defeated and it’s making me a bit sad/crazy.

[equisusan]

I’m sorry you are in pain. I’ve not had bursitis in my hip but I do suffer from chronic pain that can get flared up and make me feel like I can’t ride. I personally wouldn’t think that taking a longer break is the answer but its possible that it just hasn’t healed enough yet. I would discuss with your physical therapist. There maybe exercises they can do to strengthen you specifically for riding or show you stretches to do before and/or after riding. Maybe you just need to put ice on it right away after riding? Show them a video of you riding if they really aren’t that familiar with the dynamics of the human body riding on a horse.

As far as your last three points. Yes to all.

[Laurierace]

Get it injected. That is one of the few things that I had injected that was fixed immediately and never came back. The injection itself is less painful than a tetanus shot.

[2tempe]

OP - I have had bursitis in my left hip for roughly 20 years. It was not as bad as yours sounds, but enough to drive me to doctor. First one told me to quit riding (NOT) and sent me to physical therapy - heat/massage which did nothing.
Then found a sports doctor who gave me a bunch of suggestions and exercises. I can’t remember the exercises, but here’s what I do remember, and it worked:

1. Use the tallest mounting block you can find when riding
2. Any time sitting (car, desk etc) sit like a guy w/ your legs splayed out
3. If you sleep on your side, get a pillow that you can place between knees. The idea is to straighten the angle of the top hip

I’m now fine as long as I don’t sit Indian style on the floor for too long; that will cause a flair up.

Before you invest time and $ into rest, massage, etc. I would strongly recommend a sports med person and see what they say. They are used to dealing w/ people who don’t sit around well! I also wonder if something else isn’t going on in your back to aggravate the hip.

[Candle]

I had min injected twice and used a foam roller on that IT band. It was super painful for two days after the injections, and then in was just sitting there and the pain vanished. Didn’t come back after the second injection.

[wateryglen]

Have you seen a doctor that gave you the diagnosis of hip bursitis? I say that because your symptoms could be caused by a herniated disc also. And some other pathologies. Have you had xrays? mri? etc? You prefaced you description with a minor back injury and since so many of us horsemen HAVE bad backs…I always think that first over any hip problems. Often the location of your butt/hip/thigh/leg pain even tells you which vertebral level it is. The medical term is “referred pain”. Where pain is…is not always where it’s coming from. Ex: L5/S1 disc pain can give you calf/ankle pain & numbness.
Many of the lumbar discs give you thigh/butt/inner thigh/knee aches/numbness or tingling. Your physical therapist can explain all this to you best.
My biggest advice is always this: LISTEN to your body!! It never lies!! And that other adage works too ie: If it hurts; dont do it!!

[littleum]

Assuming you actually have bursitis and not something like a back injury which can mimic bursitis/glute injuries:

I had bursitis so badly in one hip years ago you could see on the xray where the head of the femur was being pushed out of the socket (partial dislocation). I developed it post knee surgery.

My doctor didn’t even mess around with massage or heat. He injected me in his office that day. Hurt like hell but was MAGICAL. The relief started within an hour.

It took 2 injections in the bad hip and 1 in the other hip and that was 20 years ago.

Heat, massage, PT? Forget it. Ask for the needle.

[Moonboots]

I keep meaning to reply, oops!

PT says my SI joint is locking/not really moving on the right side, which is why my IT band is rubbing and aggravating the bursa. Getting the injections may help relieve the bursitis pain, but won’t help the underlying cause.

Up until now, I’ve been pretty… uneducated… about muscle groups and biomechanics. I’m still learning (slowly) what these things mean. But there is a long list of muscles being affected by/affecting what’s going on with my SI. There’s a post-it note for me to give to message saying:
“SI Dysfunction + myofascial tightness
RT QL/paraspinals
RT ITB/TFL”

Working with PT to do strengthening exercises. Going to start with massage to help relieve tightness. Probably going to follow up with doctor in the next week to see if there’s anything else I can do.

This must have been going on for a while because for about a month, I was noticing that my saddle seemed to be slipping to the left by the end of my ride. I was really trying to focus on sitting “centred”, so maybe that accelerated the bursitis flare up.

[Bristol_Bay]

What kind of saddle do you ride on? That can also aggravate bursitis.

I have been getting injections every three months for three years. It does give relief, and I envy those that were helped by just one shot. The last shot I had was a month ago and I’m already achy.

Don’t be afraid of pain meds. They gave me my life back.

Did anyone here have an MRI? If so, what did it show you?

[Laurierace]

OP, my PT said the same thing about my SI. I had hip surgery last Monday to repair my labrum and fix and impingement. No more SI pain. I would get an MRA or at least an MRI. Thank God Simkie gave me that same advice otherwise I wouldn’t be on the road to recovery.

[Jackie_Cochran]

I’ve had hip bursitis for decades. Mine is/was not as severe as yours. I did wake up every morning with my hips hurting and me hobbling until I warmed up.

What really helped my pain was the Back on Track women’s boxer underwear and the BoT small mattress pad. Since I started using these products there are days when I wake up with NO PAIN, and it can now be weeks between the flare-ups of pain.

The only time riding horses got it going was on a Paso Fino mare with extremely short and upright pasterns. Saddles with wide twists do not help me any either. I’m fine in my 43 year old Stubben Siegfried and equally ancient Crosby, but the Wintecs are sort of yech.

Good luck!

[Moonboots]

I did have a pretty bad car accident about 5 years ago, and I’ve been “crooked” in the back ever since (despite chiro/massage and the doc saying it was ‘just whiplash’)

[Candle]

Ask your doctor for Pennsaid (if safe, etc for you), the stuff is magical. It’s a topical NSAID and the delivery system works like nothing else I’ve tried. It’s far better than voltaren gel IMO.

[JBD]

I have bursitis in both hips and sleeping can be difficult when both are aching. I take a twice daily prescription anti inflammatory plus the injections every 3-5 months ( try to get them closer to horse shows) Riding doesn’t seem to bother me but sitting on a stationary horse does.

I need to start up the exercises again and want to get a foam roller.
P. S. I don’t think the injections are bad at all. The hip that hurts the most the day of the shot may be a little uncomfortable. And I never have pain the next day. The worse thing that ever happened is one site started bleeding through the band aid and my slacks, gross.

[Henjen]

Trigger Point Therapy will probably fix this

I second what wateryglen says. Refferred pain is a medically proven fact. I have had my own experience with pain in the hip and pain elsewhere that I have “cured” with trigger point therapy. It sounds like “hocus pocus” but it is medically-based. There is a workbook called “The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook” (good name, huh?) that you can order for less than $15 that outlines the entire body’s trigger points and corresponding referred pain areas. It takes time for the area to heal but it will eventually if you follow the books instructions.

Also order a “theracane” at the same time. (you can get the book and the theracane both on Amazon–a foam roller is good to have too) Totally worth the money and it’s use is described in the workbook.

My hip started bothering me about a month ago. It would ache so much that it would wake me up and I couldn’t lay on that side. Luckily it didnt bother me while riding I think mine was from too many squats in exercise class and the resulting trigger points. Been working on it with the theracane and a lacrosse ball for about a week and it already feels better.

Google “trigger point therapy”. Happy to answer any other questions about it. Good luck. Being in pain and unable to do the things that keep you sane is terrible.

[infiniti]

Didn’t read all the post so my apologies if I’m repeating others. But the key to resolving my hip bursitis which flared up from a bad knee and back was muscle seeing a functional rehab specialist to strengthen the right muscles, foam roller and active release therapy (many chiros and physios can do this). Best of luck!

[ellevt]

I have inflammation in the SI joint as well as bursitis. It’s not 100% cured, but it hasn’t stopped me from riding yet.

I was lucky to find a really great physical therapist. He told me that from riding, my quads and inner thigh muscles were really over developed and my glutes, hip abductors and hip flexors were really underdeveloped which was the primary cause of the inflammation. Basically things got pulled out of place and my body was trying to compensate.

So I do a lot of leg lifts, clam shells, walking with a resistance band tied around my ankles, bridges, and skipping. (Yes skipping!! I look like an idiot). Has helped a lot!

[EarwenES]

I think the injections for bursitis are worth the pain. The clams exercise aggravate my bursitis and SI pain worse. I hope you feel better soon. Agreed that sitting Indian style and unfortunately sitting on a horse (I just sat on a saddle rack at the tack store) make things worse…have you tried a lacrosse ball to massage trigger points? That has been the biggest help to me - and pain meds.

[EarwenES]

I did just get these compression capris from Kerritts. I don’t ride, but they offer a lot of support in the stomach (core) hips, and seem to help stabilize my SI joint a little. They go on sale on zulily.com every once in a whole and you can get them pretty inexpensively.

[infiniti]

[QUOTE=EarwenES;7502487]
I think the injections for bursitis are worth the pain. The clams exercise aggravate my bursitis and SI pain worse. I hope you feel better soon. Agreed that sitting Indian style and unfortunately sitting on a horse (I just sat on a saddle rack at the tack store) make things worse…have you tried a lacrosse ball to massage trigger points? That has been the biggest help to me - and pain meds.[/QUOTE]

I second the lacross ball or what I use is the mini Accuball - http://www.acuball.com