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Gluteal tendinopathy - endless pain - losing my mind

Posted by emarks @emarks, Nov 29 4:10pm

Has anyone else dealt with this:
I'm now up to 5 months of daily pain, the the last two weeks have been the worst. I'm totally losing my mind.
First diagnosis was L5/S1, with disc pressing on nerve. I had cortisone shots, then an epidural. Not much relief, although with time the L5/S1 pain seems to have subsided. I've been doing physical therapy for almost the entire time.
For the past two months, increasing pain in left buttock and often sharp pain in left hip area. Diagnosed with piriformis syndrome, new MRI shows gluteal tendinopathy. I got two cortisone shots for that 6 days ago.
The hip area pain just keeps getting worse. I've had to cancel many plans and limit my activities. It's very depressing and is driving me crazy. Just wondering if anyone else is dealing with this and if they have any suggestions for both physical and mental health. Thank you.

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emarks | @emarks | 6 days ago
In reply to @chrisc58 "@lynmen I understand how difficult it is to keep a positive attitude when you wake up..." + (show)
Profile picture for chrisc58 @chrisc58

@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.

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@chrisc58
Hi. The diagnosis of the core issue seem to be such a big problem with this stuff. I hope you get it figured out.
In my case, the doctor now thinks that all the gluteal tendinopathy hip/buttock pain, piriformis irritation etc go back to the L5/S1 problem with a disc pressing on nerve. That was first seen on an MRI 5 months ago, and I had PT etc for it, but as pain developed in other areas I got other diagnoses as well. They weren't necessarily wrong, but my current doctor - who wasn't in on this until about 2-3 months ago - is convinced it's all attributable to disc/nerve. He thinks that just takes a while to heal (in the meantime I'll try the shockwaves for the pain, which is driving me a bit less crazy. A bit.)

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emarks | @emarks | 6 days ago
In reply to @loyd1957 "Hi, I was beginning to have pain years ago and 3 years ago obviously aggravated my..." + (show)
Profile picture for loyd1957 @loyd1957

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.

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@loyd1957
That sounds really rough. I'm sorry.
I just replied to someone about how my doctor now thinks that mine all goes back to a nerve/disc issue that was discovered this summer - has that been explored?
And in terms of the pain, have you looked into shockwave therapy? I knew nothing about it until reading people's comments here, and when I asked my doctor about it on Monday he said yes, that was the next thing to do (cortisone shot didn't work).
And I know what you mean about how the pain shows up. I think it might be because those muscles are so totally involved with any body movement. My "favorite" - I felt a twinge in the hip while buttoning a shirt collar button on Thanksgiving!
Hang in there.

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