I am a 55 yr old male who still plays hard, but the pain is starting to take its toll. Time out- I'm not ready for this old age stuff! 7 months ago, at the end of the snowboarding season, I went to the driving range. After hitting 4 buckets of balls I noticed a soreness in my left hip. I'll admit since its been pointed out to me so often, that I swing way too hard. Since then I can't walk for more than 5 minutes without extreme hip, groin and lower back pain that often travels down my leg and causes numbness and leg weakness. PT, Chiropractor and recently acupuncture haven't done much. Celebrex relieves pain for awhile. A good sleep and I feel fine until I start to walk. 50 paces and I'm hooped. My dog thinks I'm lazy as the walks are really short now. Can still do 20 minutes a day on the eliptical trainer without a problem. This only reinforces the dog's opinion that I'm sandbagging. Don't notice creaking or grinding in the joint, no swelling or family history. Dad at 81 still hikes about 3 -4 miles a day. Onset is sharp jabbing intermittent pain, followed by symptoms above. X-rays show slight osteo but I'm not convinced. The symptoms described by many people with labral tears and the fact that the onset in my case was so sudden causes me to believe a labral tear or perhaps a fracture may be the culprit in my hip problem. My doctor is one of those "take these pills and call me in 6 months kind of guys" so I'm trying to get this thing figured out as much as I can before my next visit. Any thoughts or ideas are welcomed.

-- Ron Baker (ron.baker@shaw.ca), December 02, 2003

Answers

You should have an MRI done with contrast. You sound like your symptoms are exactly what I have except I have creaking/clicking as I cross my leg over my body. A regular MRI is not good enuff, you need the contrast for a complete picture and it will show any tear in labrum.

-- Don Freeburger (donfree@qis.net), January 16, 2004.

I'm sorry for your pain. Check out this article on golfing and labral tears.

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/content/news/target.cfm?ID=158

-- Tim Josserand (tmjoss@yahoo.com), November 10, 2004.