Hip Issue
the MRI report reads as follows, feel free to chime in, especially you docs, or people who play Docs in forums
Findings:
Small field-of-view images of the left hip demonstrate mild focal blunting of the anterosuperior labrum. There are early/minimal degenerative changes of the left hip including focal mild partial thickness cartilage fissuring and associated subchondral cystic change along the superolateral aspect of the acetabulum. The gluteus medius and minimus tendons are maintained. There is
no greater trochanteric bursitis or iliopsoas bursitis. The fat planes surrounding the sciatic nerve are preserved. There is mild-to-moderate ventricular origin tendinosis with superimposed mild intrasubstance tearing.
There is no fracture or osteonecrosis. There is no evidence of stress reaction.
There is no bulky pelvic lymphadenopathy. Partially visualized intrapelvic organs are within normal limits.
Impression:
Mild focal blunting/truncation of the anterosuperior labrum.
Minimal degenerative changes of the right hip.
Comments
Mine was a little different to yours but a few things I've learnt with sports doctors and good physios:
- Imaging will nearly always show some degeneration in the hip (e.g. labrum) in endurance runners> most of the time it isn't a problem. Mine showed worse- but turned out not to be the problem. Sometimes it's better not knowing! But obviously speak with your doc. Reading that report the tendinosis is what catches my eye the most.
- We are complicated beings. Often the muscles will tighten to protect the injury and you can get referred pain- this can make pin pointing the problem a lot harder. It took 1 month to diagnose my first stress fracture (mid shaft on femur). They though it was a pulled muscle or a groin strain at first or something up there - but the hip MRI came back empty (the fracture point was lower and not captured on the first scan). I had to let it completely settle for 2-3 weeks or so - then we could narrow down where its coming from. The cause could be low back or further down your leg.
- If it gets worse during a run and if you get "dull aches" whilst at rest its a possible indication of bone injury. Muscular things tend to "loosen" and get a little better as you warm up.
Hopefully your actual docs/professionals can offer more than us forum docs....If you ask me, it's tendonitis or as the report says tendinosis, which is more troubling. I've had painful right hamstring for years. Usually worse at the end of the season. That can be referred pain as you called it. I have Tendinosis in my left shoulder as I developed tendonitis a few years ago after surgery...
Hurts less and less lately, does NOT hurt while running or biking, pain is random and not immediately after exercising either. actually hurts most after sitting for periods of time in office chair or my daughter's car, which has more of an upright position than my "sports Car" like position.
I have found some success with gaining and maintaining my hip mobility and eliminating any stiffness/pain from sitting.
For me, rolling with a trigger point ball, vice a foam roller, gets at the smaller muscles that stabilize the hip (gluteus minimus and piriformis) as well as the bigger muscless (gluteus medius and gluteus maximus). The foam roller, for me, cannot get at the deeper tissue to loosen it up. There are two videos below that demo the rolling and stretches I use.
In the second video, the guy uses a softball instead of a trigger point ball, but that was way too comfortable for me. The trigger point ball has the right mix of density to (like the foam roller) to massage.
Trigger point video demo here:
Stretches here: (the guy demonstrating is a bit goofy - but he demonstrates a variety of hip mobility stretches that I use in the my routine)
The fact it doesn’t hurt whist running is good! Sounds like the others are onto it- spend some time on hip stretching and glute “activation” stuff. It takes some time to be effective- but will likely help.
On my road bike I add 4 washers (about 2mm diameter) to my pedal (do not add more than 4 washers).
On my TT bike I add spaces, see https://blog.bikefit.com/cycling-knee-pain/
My hip pain gone.
Doron