tcreynolds | Sprained hip flexor

Sunday I drove into the states for gas and groceries. I tried on some shorts at Kohls, had a sedate walk at a creekside park and saw lots of deer, and hung out and drew at a brewery. Two things happened: I had bad stiffness in my right leg while I was trying on clothing, and got angry at myself and started yanking things around. At the brewery I sat on a tall metal barstool and was struggling to push in my stool while sitting on it. I got home uneventually and had a normal night's sleep.

Monday morning I was running for the ibuprofen. I was really stiff and painful but managed to work a full day without problems. But sleeping that night, I could only fall asleep with a very specific position. Right knee up, left leg stretched out, pelvis tilted down. It was painful but I could sleep.

Tuesday I was in terrible pain. I had to pick up mom from the airport and as soon as I got in the car I knew I would be exacerbating my injury. But what else could I do? I had promised I'd pick her up.

Wednesday morning I asked mom to drive me to the ER. I hadn't slept at all and was in terrible pain. After a lot of waiting they gave me a physical exam and said it was a hip flexor strain, take OTC antiinflammitories and that should fix it. I was frustrated because I was already taking those and they didn't remove the pain. Later on I was massaging the area and found a big patch of numbness. During the exam they had asked me if I had any numbness and I said no, because I didn't know it was there at the time.

Thursday I was supposed to have my gallbladder surgery. I was in at 6am and during the pre-surgery checkin, they didn't like the look of my condition at all. After a consult we all decided that I should not have surgery that day and reschedule when I wasn't a 7 on the pain scale. They were especially worried about the abdominal numbness that so far had no explanation. They wheeled me back over to the ER and then began another long day of waiting, tests, and more waiting. They ultrasounded my bladder, got my abdomen a CT scan and gave me a shot of Tramadol, which didn't do much at first.
I had convinced myself that it was a pinched nerve and that's why the antiinflammatories weren't working. They looked at the CT scan and confirmed that there was no pinched nerve, just a really bad sprain. (Spine looked good, bladder looked fine.) But they gave me a script for pregabalin anyway because I told them it worked so well the last time. I really thought that would cure all this pain. My friend picked me up from the hospital and we got the scripts filled, I got home ate a half sandwich and popped the pills, took a nice shower and was looking forward to catching up on sleep. But it was not to be. I think I slept for maybe an hour and the burning pain was back. And getting up it was worse than ever.

I pushed through some pain and got dressed to go for a brief walk in the alley. We came to a concrete barrier in the shade and I sat on it, opened my legs as wide as they can go, tilted my pelvis way forward and straightened my spine, and engaged the abdominals. It brought relief so I'm hopeful. Maybe it's a big cramp and I need to stretch it out.
We called a bunch of physiotherapists and made an appointment for next Thursday and also found a place that had an opening for tomorrow, so I'm hopeful. The ER doctors said physio was the only way out of this.