Pain in knee, buttocks and lower back, possible related to improperly aligned hip

[onkeltheo]

Dear everyone

I am a 25 year oldmale with a lot of problems with pain and weakness in my back, hipand knee. I've always had problems with my neck, but lately I've beenable to get what seemed to be a steady worsening condition undercontrol, through regular rehabilitation exercises. As I am a studentliving in a foreign country at the moment, I really don't have a lotof money to spend on treatment.
I have organizedthis post into four sections:

1. Where do I have pain, and what does it feel like
2. Other information which I think is important to finding a cure
3. A timelime of my symptoms
4. My questions

I know that thisis a very long post, but I hope that somebody will read through it. Ihave been to several doctors, and I never had a chance to explain everything in detail. No doctor I have spoken to seemed to have anidea of what might be the overall problem with me. I am trying topost the full list of my symptoms in the hope that somebody will havean idea of what the underlying cause responsible for all theseproblems might be.
I will be verygrateful for any answers!

1. Where do I have pain, and what does it feel like

A year ago Isuddenly got a bad back pain. I quickly got an MRI scan of the lowerback, and a small disc herniation was found, I think between L4 andL5, or L5 and the lower part of the spine. If the exact place isimportant, I can try to find out. According to the doctor who madeher diagnosis from the MRI picture and from my own description of thepain (no tingling feeling in my feet and legs), there was no rootdamage. Since then I have had a variety of issues.
First of all, myknee feels tight and stiff. There's a tight sensation in myquadriceps at all times, and sometimes it's painful. When I try tostraighten my knee, there's a tight sensation in the lower left sideon the knee. When I try to bend my knee, as if trying to stretch myquadriceps by grasping my foot and pulling, there's pain under theupper half of the kneecap. When I walk, it feels as if turn my hipslightly counterclockwise with every forward step of my right leg, asif my left leg can't extend backwards properly.
I often getcramps in my left foot, which is something that have startedhappening in the last few years. It seems to be correlated with theknee pain.
The second majorplace where I have pain is in my right side, in the hamstring,buttocks, hip, lower back, and sometimes all the way up to the middleof my back. The hamstring feels tight, sometimes very much so,bordering on the painful. The pain in my buttocks in complex anddifficult to describe, as it occurs in many places. There is painslightly to the right of the center of the right buttocks, in theupper right part, and on the side of my hip. The pain is more or lessconstant, although I can massage the spots with a cane for somedegree of temporary relief.
The pain in mymiddle/lower back is also on the right side, and seems to come and goin periods. When it is there it is quite constant, and it isdifficult for my to lean back. The pain in my lower back is justwhere I imagine that I had my herniation, and it has been more orless constant lately. It is exacerbated when I lean forward.
Finally, also onthe right side, I have a pain on the inside of my thigh, in what Ithink is my pectineus muscle. It hurts on the right side when I tryto spread my legs, or if I try to close them against resistance.

2. Other information which I think is importantto finding a cure

I seem to have arather asymmetric body since way back, and below I have describedsome of the things that I have noticed.
When I try tostand normally, it feels like I'm putting more weight on my left kneethan on my right knee. When I try to compensate for this my leaningright (into a position that seems unnatural for me), it feeluncomfortable in my hip, sometimes even painful.
When I sit downand put my right ankle on my left knee, I can push down my right kneeuntil my right knee is almost level with my right ankle. However,when I do the reverse (left ankle on right knee), the left kneehardly comes down towards the ground. Similarly, I can easily crossmy right leg over my left, but the other way around is difficult.Finally, and I think that this is important, my hip is higher onthe right side that on the left side. A massage therapist firstpointed that out to me, but even my wife can see it, just fromlooking at me when I'm standing.
Lastly, when Ibend my back backwards, thereby incresing the lower curve of thespine, I also have completely different feelings in the left and theright sides of my middle back. The left side feels fine, but theright side feels as if it stiff and won't bend properly, sometimeswith some pain.

3. A timelime of my symptoms

Below is a veryrough timeline. I'm not a physiotherapist myself, but I thought thatsome information about what happened when might add some insight intowhat could be the root cause of all my problems.

• 2009 - 2011: Right knee would often be stiff, and hurt when strain was put on the knee. I thought that this was due to me using a bicycle (as this seemed like the most obvious reason), but I have since realized that there seems to be no correlation betweem my knee pain and how much I use a bicycle.
• Jan. 2011: Sudden back pain. Got MRI scan, diagnosed with herniation in L5.
• Feb. - Mar. 2011: Seeing various doctors, but they were not much help. Meanwhile the level of pain in my lower back (right side) declines to a steady level, but is still very uncomfortable. Simultaneously, pain develops in the right buttocks. I also have days with a lot of middle back pain.
• Apr. 2011: Finally found therapy that helps. Got rid of lower back pain and knee pain.
• May – Aug. 2011: Healthy as a happy oyster, with only occasional pain in the lower and middle back.
• 3 months ago: Pain in buttocks begins.
• 2.5 months ago: Hip pain begins.
• 6 weeks ago: Lower back pain returns.
• 3-4 weeks ago: Knee pain returns.
• 1 week ago: went to massage therapist, but treatment was not successfull. I tend to go again soon, but I really can't afford to go there a lot, and especially when the treatment is not working.
• Yesterday: Middle back pain returns.

4. My Questions

It is a bit difficult to know what questions to ask, beforeknowing what the problem is. The following questions are based on myown

1. 1. 1. Can a mis-aligned hip explain the problems that I have described (mainly knee pain, foot cramps, pectineus pain, and buttocks and lower back pain)?
      2. How can I gauge the extend to which my hip is mis-aligned?
      3. How can I determine which muscles are too tight?
      4. Are there any good exercises or stretches that I can do?
      5. Generally, what can I do about my condition?

Thank you so muchfor your help and comments! I really appreciate it.


Yours,
Halfdan

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[EvelynBolick]

Based on the facts it may be concluded that having a good knee pain diagnosis can be very useful for finding out the best solution for your knee ache. This way, you don't need to suffer any more or deal with the continual outcomes of your knee pain.