Nerve pain radiating from my left hip

Sjtm1956

Ido not want a new left hip as advised by an orthopaedic surgeon at present,for pain relief for oestoarthritis.Phsiotherapist recommended exercise I also have oestoarthritis in my left knee pain radiating down my thigh ,shin and top of my foot and now in my left elbow I have been told this is nerve damage.kneed opioids gps disagree,that I cannot have tramadol for short periods an other will prescribe help.

SoniaR

Why do you not want a hip replacement? I had one in 2016 and it’s been amazing. It is major surgery but recovery, for me, was pretty quick. By week 2 no need of crutches and by week 7 I was driving again. I don’t want to trivialise the surgery, but it really, really helped me.

helpline_team

Hi @Sjtm1956,

Thank you for your post on our on-line community.

We are sorry to hear about the pain that you are experiencing, if you have chosen not to have a hip replacement then that is entirely your choice but as SoniaR has said there are a lot of advantages to having a replacement and possibly speaking to someone professionally may help to put your mind at rest.

As the physiotherapist has advised exercise is very important part of managing the condition of any form of arthritis, as it helps to build up the muscle in the joints and helps with stiffness, I have attached some hip exercises from our website if you haven’t been able to see a physio as yet.

Often people that have osteoarthritis in the hips can often experience pain in other areas, this is called referred pain or radiated pain and is common. The areas that can be affected is the groin, down the front of the leg and in the knee. 

You could speak to your doctor and ask about Capsaicin cream, which is a drug free complementary treatment, which is recommended for osteoarthritis and has been given a score of 5/5 for effectiveness for this condition, it is only available on prescription from your GP. When applied in the form of a cream it is thought to provide pain relief by temporarily changing the way our body process pain which works mainly by reducing Substance P, a pain transmitter in your nerves. If you were to get the cream, it would need to be applied 4 times a day and allowed to build up into the system for at least 2 weeks.

 

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/hip-pain/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/exercising-with-arthritis/exercises-for-healthy-joints/exercises-for-the-hips/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/complementary-and-alternative-treatments/types-of-complementary-treatments/capsaicin/

Best wishes

Chris

Helpline Advisor

Newyear

Hello,

Obviously it is your choice as to have the op or not but if I was you I would agree to have it. There is such a long wait so would not be for ages. I to did not want the op so kept putting it off and using meds for the pain. I agreed to the op last year. Things now are unbearable! The pain is horrendous even in lots of meds. I also have nerve pain from it and struggle to leave my house. I only leave to go to work and even that is awful but I’m determined not to leave my job. I would not survive on benefits so it’s not an option. I’m now on priority list whatever that means! (I’ve asked the question on here) I so wish I’d agreed to the op sooner as I may well have had it now! In the last year I’ve gone from walking to work even though a little painful to not even being able to walk to the top of my road!