Gluteal tendinopathy - endless pain - losing my mind

@spillihped
Hi, thanks for your message. Good to hear shockwave therapy has helped. I'm supposed to be having it after 3 weeks with a TENS machine to desensitise the area. I hadn't heard of isometric exercises and have been looking into it. I've been told to do exercises clenching my buttocks and to do the 'bridge' which makes my back ache. Thanks for your positive advice.

Hi, lynmen -
If bridging makes your back ache, perhaps you're not doing it correctly. Be sure your heels are close to your butt and that you hold each rep for at least 5 secs with your core tightened. Don't do too many at first - maybe only five or 8.
Isometrics help grow muscle strength faster than reps, but I do both, with SLOW reps. If you do fast reps, chances are you'll be using momentum, which won't help.
Good luck, and let me know how you progress.

@lynmen
Thank you. And thanks to everyone else who mentioned the shockwave therapy. I saw the doctor today and I'm going to have 4 sessions of that starting next week. I REALLY appreciate the wonderful input here because I knew zero about it before people brought it up. FWIW, he told me to try to really minimize the tylenol and advil because I'm on gabapentin and a week into duloxetine - too many pills, he said, and I totally agree. So far no problems with the duloxetine, but I know one has to be very watchful for side effects. And I'll be going back to the doc who prescribed it in 3 weeks. I hope the TENS helps you.

@lynmen I am oh so sympathetic to your plight. My situation sounds very similar in that the throbbing buttock pain turned into piercing pain in my outer thigh after a long driving trip up to the Canadian Rockies. I struggle to walk around after about noon as my pain increases and leg strength decreases during the day. No problem for me sitting or driving (the heated seats help0, but steps and stairs are daunting. Physical therapy has helped a little, but the pain and weakness persist. I am sticking with Advil for a bit longer because opioids are not for me. Just trying to balance physical therapy and rest is a chore. Everyday is a bit different. Focusing on keeping a positive attitude, the posts in here help with that, but this is both physically and mentally exhausting.

Keep the faith—it will get better.

@chrisc58 Thanks for your encouraging message. Yes, I have problems with strong painkillers - particularly opioids. I'm seeing GP this morning and I'm going to ask her for lowest dose amitriptyline as I'm too fearful to take duloxetine. My biggest problem is trying to find comfort anywhere. Sitting is so uncomfortable and even lying now causes pain. Have had to cancel all Christmas plans as driving is so difficult and trying to sit in other people's houses is embarrassing. I'm not stressed about staying home - my partner is very supportive and he can visit his family without me. I know there are a lot of people worse off than me, so I'm trying to keep it in perspective, but lying awake at 4.30 this morning with racing heart doesn't help! Trying out TENS machine today with physiotherapist who is very kind, so hopefully it will give me some relief. Also looking at ordering very ugly upright chair as I'm not supposed to use a recliner. Have they worked out what's causing the weakness in your leg? Is it sciatica? Trapped nerve? Mine came on following a holiday with long journeys driving. How wonderful to go to the Rockies. I nearly got a job in Banff in my 20s but couldn't get a visa. Do hope your leg improves soon.

@emarks good luck with the shock therapy. It may take up to 8 weeks before you get results after completing the four sessions, but don’t give up hope.

@lynmen I understand how difficult it is to keep a positive attitude when you wake up in the wee hours of the morning in pain. I have a chronically bad knee that used to keep me awake every night until I started a few years ago getting hyaluronic acid injections. The shots have worked well, but their effectiveness decreases each cycle. I thought my buttocks/thigh pain was associated with my knee and waited months before seeing a medical professional. That was a mistake on my part. They have not truly diagnosed what my core issue is, but I see another hip specialist tomorrow and then a spine specialist next month. Once the base problem is isolated then we will get it sorted. In the meantime, I will continue with the stretch and strengthen physical therapy regiment, moderate my activity, and grin and bear it.

I have not tried the TENS machine, but have heard good things. I will broach the subject in a few days with my physical therapist. Not sure physical therapy is helping much, but it does give me a bit of hope that things will improve in time. Positivity may be the only thing I can control at this point.

Take care of yourself and keep positive if you can.

Hi, I was beginning to have pain years ago and 3 years ago obviously aggravated my left hip while walking up steep sidewalk in Boston with luggage. I had been having glute pain and/or SI joint pain for years but medium pain and random. The past 3 years have been bad and finally saw orthopedic. Original diagnosis was bursitis which could have been. Over time he changed to gluteal tendonopathy because radiates through glutes, hips and IT band. I have had 3 cortisone shots over time. All helped but can’t do that forever. The past year, like you, I have been having random very sharp pain in left trochanter/hip area. Sharp and hits whenever it darn well pleases. I don’t know what to do. I try to go walk and it hits, I have to slowly limp home. How much ibuprofen can one take? Seems like I am taking it forever which is not good. I am ready to find another orthopedic but last suggestion was PRP therapy which many say doesn’t work but some say it does. Any ideas would be helpful. The sharp pain is just making me not want to move.

@loyd1957

Hi @emarks ,

At the moment the jokes in my home revolve around me being a living fossil as one of my gluten tendons has calcified. It is slowly breaking up, and the bursitis is coming along. However; the worse pain was my abductor, cramping and my abductor having spasms. I spent a week in the hospital chasing the pain, as I could not walk.( side note: ED was overflowing and I spent the night in the hall by the supply room door. ) I have the red head gene, so the drug combinations were wicked, and still only took the edge off. There was a cortisone shot to break up the calcified tendon. I had to use a walker or a cane and could not walk straight. Only sideways. After the hospital, the hip specialist thought I had a new cancer, and the neurosurgeon who said I need my back fused, I then saw my cranial sacral therapist. Within 5 minutes I was feeling better, no pain. The quality of my life since seeing cranial sacral therapists, is so much greater as a participant as opposed to a viewer is so hard to explain, I cannot imagine where I would be. I also saw a special theraputic massage therapist for the muscles. Not fun but so worth it.
I am proactive about my pain. I am trying to delay surgeries as long as possible, while doing PT, weights, ( no more than 10 #s ), Shockwave for my neuropathy, eating better , and exercise, yoga and whatever else I can think of. I understand that there is no going back to my old normal, but that does not mean I cannot try.
lim f(x) as x approaches infinity ( I cannot quickly find math symbols on my phone, but hopefully you understand. Although applying chaos theory to how pain manifests...might actually work.
JFN