Oh yeah

That thing where I'm supposed to update about ME. That. That THING.

So, my hip. The newest in the ongoing chain of "pieces of Rose that decide to malfunction". A stabby pain in my hip sent me to the doctor, who put me on anti-inflammatories and ice. The hip reacted well and healed up. I continued my normal routine.

Wash, rinse, repeat, from February until now. Except it's now more of a "dull ache constant pain" and it's impacted my normal routine (which means I've gained back every damned pound I lost, plus some, due to not being able to exercise worth a damned with a bum hip.)

Soooo, I go BACK to the doctor and start getting pushy and demanding. YES, the anti-inflammatories take care of the pain, but I don't want to keep popping pills to mask symptoms and How Do We Fix THIS???

* They send me to go get xrays.
* The xrays come back completely normal.
* My doctor throws up hands in defeat and sends me to an orthopedic doctor.
* Who looks at the completely normal xrays, has no idea what I did or how to fix it, says stay on the anti-inflammatories, half heartedly suggests cortizone shots (no thank you), and then helpfully suggests PT.

And THEN, yesterday, I had my first session of PT. And my PT therapist looked at me, made me walk around in bare feet for awhile, put me through my paces in stretching ("can you move this way? How about this? Does this hurt?") and strength tests ("Lift your knee. Now don't let me push it down.") and then made some Hmmmm noises and had two things to say:

"Have you ever been a dancer? I've never seen anyone else walk like that - your heels never touch the floor." (Me: "They don't??" My roommate, on hearing this later: "Duh. You walk like a CAT. Their heels don't touch the floor either!")

and...

"You probably hyperextended something. You're TOO FLEXIBLE and you have ZERO core strength."

.....this is the very FIRST time that anyone has been able to suggest any reasonable or plausible cause of WHY I've been in pain. x____x

So now I have strength building exercises to do twice daily (reverse plank and clam shell leg lifts and weighted marching) which make my thigh muscles burn and beg for mercy (I started shaking like a leaf as soon as the PT lady put me in the reverse plank pose and she just snorted and said yeah, there, SEE? Zero core strength. Stop doing yoga! Start doing tai chi!) and then some stretches to loosen the muscles up afterwards. Which involved her showing me a stretch and going "ok, can you feel that?" and me going "...um, no." Stretch further - "now?" "no." Stretch even further - "now?" "still no." "...ok, this obviously isn't going to work for you. You're too flexible." and then finding a completely different modified stretch that doesn't seem like it'd stretch anything (kneel on one knee and drop your tailbone down) and which had me going "oh, hey, WOW, OW! I can FEEL that!" =P

And I have to do the exercises twice daily, and go to PT twice weekly, and I can't really say my morning routine is improved by doing things at omg!o'clock that make my hips and thighs hurt. mrph. BUT. At least there's an action plan now.