Hip injection

Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m still curious about how the shot will help decide whether or not I need a hip replacement.. I guess I’ll have to wait and ask about that after I’ve had the injection. P.S. It IS a steroid.

@msvjv, I did get the cortisone injection this morning!
It was performed in the office by the Nurse Practioner who has been taking care of me throughout my wrist fracture recovery. In fact, I was able to get the injection scheduled in coordination to my wrist follow-up today since I'm an established patient and my PCP had written the order for the produre! That was so convenient and a benefit of a local facility.

I do admit that I was concerned about it beforehand, but the NP explained everything and answered my questions/concerns. Since my injection was going into soft tissue and not into the joint, it was performed right there in the office. I did not even need a new x-ray, since the Feb xray was available for her to view in regards to mild degeneration. She really appreciated when I presented my bone density reports to her. Inflamation due to bursitis is the suspected culprit of my pain due to the location and kind of pain, At this point, we are going to watch and observe my response and relief from bursitis inflamation.
If I ever need injection into a joint, it would need to performed as a guided injection in the medical setting.
The injection was, for me, absolutely painless. I have another appointment for wrist issues in a month, and she will also want to know about the cortisone injection.

@msvjv
Does your pain radiate to your groin? My hip doctor said that is a common symptom when the source of pain is hip joint. MRI would help to show soft tissue injury, etc. They did an MRI after X-ray and before any recommendation of hip injection (which I ended up not needing since my pain was from gluteal tendinapathy and hamstring tears and lumbar spine. Good luck with getting the injection and hope you find relief.

Hi @msvis
Yes, absolutely, your doctor is exactly who you should be asking. In the meantime, I can give you the 'amateur's answer'... Steroids are the 'cadillac' drug for inflammation [they have nasty side effects when used long-term, so they are used only when indicated] But they work so well!
IF... your hip is inflamed due to problems in the hip, then the steroid may reduce the pain because the inflammation will go down. Therefore they may think, the problem is in the hip itself and not the back.
Problems in the back are tricky because when the nerve is irritated at the spine, that nerve can give signals all along the nerve path, all the way down to the foot - so your foot can be tingly, etc, but there is nothing wrong with the foot, it is the nerve up at the spine level that is causing that nerve to be irritated or pinched
So, it is my thought that your doctor is using 'process of elimination' to narrow down the possibilities of just what is going on - and where the true problem is. After this gets established then you will plan the next step of how to proceed in your treatment.
Sounds good - you are on the hunt for the culprit.!
Let us know how you get on.

Here's my experience - after being diagnosed with the need for a hip replacement.

Mine was a cortisone injection, guided by a fluoroscope to the correct location. Mine was done in a hospital as an outpatient. I had to stop all blood-thinning meds (prescription and OTC like NSAIDs) 3-4 days before the procedure to minimize bleeding.

They prep you by getting you in a gown, positioning you and using an antiseptic scrub multiple times.

They follow this with injections of lidocaine to numb the area - this can be painful (actually the most painful for me), but is necessary to enable the large needle to inject the cortisone.

The actual injection is a bit painful - they slowly work the needle in the proper position to do the injection. When I had the hip done, I could feel the stuff getting pushed in. Not that you can do it, but it does help to relax and definitely don't move!

The lidocaine works about 3-6 hours and wears off, and the cortisone generally takes 3-5 days minimum to start to kick in. So, you may experience more pain for a few days. You will have a bandage which you can remove once the bleeding stops. They recommended taking showers and avoiding soaking in a bathtub/hot tub for a week.

For mine, the pain relief lasted about 90 days. Thus, someday I will be getting a replacement after 2 more injections.

BTW - I just had a similar injection done on the L4 part of the spine where I have a misaligned disk pressing on a nerve. They used an xray rather than a fluoroscope for location. The needle was 3.5 inches long.

I have a followup to the back injection in 6 weeks where we will be discussing doing another injection for the hip. There is a protocol which I believe (based on spousal experience) is three injections before they will consider doing a replacement.

In my opinion it's is better to have it done than to have your physical activities restricted by the pain.

Hopefully this isn't too much information and hope it helps.

Hi-
Interesting on dc’ing the blood thinners. I’m on Eliquis and was told I didn’t need to stop it. I’ll recheck that. My sister said the same thing about quality of life. I just don’t want to face another surgery at my age. But three years from now it would be even more intimidating. I’ll have to wait and see what the injection proves.

Hello, I had serious leg pain as well and my primary doctor said it was from hip bursitis. So I got the steroid injection and it didn't help the pain at all. Then my Sports Medicine doctor wanted an xray and that showed severe osteoarthritis of my hip. And that was the cause of the leg pain. I am now scheduled for total hip replacement surgery.

@msvjv, I did get the cortisone injection this morning!
It was performed in the office by the Nurse Practioner who has been taking care of me throughout my wrist fracture recovery. In fact, I was able to get the injection scheduled in coordination to my wrist follow-up today since I'm an established patient and my PCP had written the order for the produre! That was so convenient and a benefit of a local facility.

I do admit that I was concerned about it beforehand, but the NP explained everything and answered my questions/concerns. Since my injection was going into soft tissue and not into the joint, it was performed right there in the office. I did not even need a new x-ray, since the Feb xray was available for her to view in regards to mild degeneration. She really appreciated when I presented my bone density reports to her. Inflamation due to bursitis is the suspected culprit of my pain due to the location and kind of pain, At this point, we are going to watch and observe my response and relief from bursitis inflamation.
If I ever need injection into a joint, it would need to performed as a guided injection in the medical setting.
The injection was, for me, absolutely painless. I have another appointment for wrist issues in a month, and she will also want to know about the cortisone injection.