For any of you who have hip pain or are considering hip arthroscopy AND your surgeon is suggesting a hip intra-articular diagnostic injection or just a plain old hip intra-articular injection – Listen UP – this video is for YOU!
The point of an intra-articular diagnostic steroid injection of the hip is to help determine WHERE your pain is coming from. If the injection gives you immediate pain relief – it’s HIGHLY likely you have a problem inside the hip joint itself.
The point of this video is to give you some guidance and considerations for AFTER you have had your injection.
©2022. Ginger Garner. All rights reserved.
IMPORTANT NOTE! You need to watch this video BEFORE your injection NOT after it.
☝️Okay, the purpose of this video is 2-fold:
- Help with protection of your hip during the vulnerable time surrounding the diagnostic injection half life
- Help with getting the most of the diagnostic injection so that it works as it is intended
In this video I give you 10 Tips, which include:
- 1. Remember the Psoas-Labral Relationship! They are intimately connected! For the first 24-48 hours, you may not be able to flex your hip as much as before the injection. Don’t force it. Let things calm down if the injection irritates the hip capsule.
- 2. Gait change considerations IF you are one of those who tend to have a flare in pain after an injection
- 3. Sleep posture considerations for the same reason
- 4. Don’t get on the hard core exercise bandwagon for 4 weeks after the injection
- 5. But don’t stop exercising either (I give you some options to consider in the video)
- 6. Don’t stretch a Snarky Psoas and try not to overfire it either for the first few days.
- 7. Skin rolling and Theraband rolling around the injection site are options to consider instead
- 8. Work on coordinating your core, pelvic floor, and breathing – but don’t do hard core work, you want to unload the psoas, not make heavy demands on it or the surrounding inner thigh and abdominal muscles. We want to avoid a sports hernia here!
- 9. Take it easy – the first 4 weeks are when the soft tissue is MOST vulnerable after an injection. You want the injection to help – but if you go all out with activity you can actually end up doing more harm than good, which cancels out the potential positive impact of the injection.
- 10. Don’t expect the injection to be a magic bullet. It’s temporary. BUT – it can offer some longer lasting effects if you consider the guidelines above and caretake the hip after the injection.
Finally – Do your part as the patient
Adopt or maintain healthy lifestyle habits like:
- Eat an ant-inflammatory diet
- Get good sleep
- Manage your stress well – The link sends you to my FREE Video Library to help you get started now!
- Minimize environmental pollutant exposure, and
- Get enough physical activity – There is a GREAT free activity tracker here that will help you set and achieve realistic goals.
If you still aren’t sure how to implement these lifestyle changes, and/or you’re stumped about next steps in your hip journey, reach out at www.drgingergarner.com. I’m happy to help!
🤓Good luck!
Ten Tips for Getting the Most of our Your Hip Injection
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Garner is a passionate, unapologetic advocate of improving access to pelvic physical therapy, a mother to 3 sons, & a 25+ year veteran in using Integrative Therapies (chiefly Yoga, Functional, and Lifestyle Medicine) to deliver orthopaedic and pelvic physical therapy & athletic training. She is the author of Medical Therapeutic Yoga, founder & CEO of Living Well Institute, owner of EudeMOMia®, and loves making music and adventure seeking outdoors as often as possible. She lives in Greensboro, NC with her partner, 3 children, and her rescue Lab, Scout Finch.
📣And remember this isn’t PT or a substitute for PT or medical care! Ya gotta get out there and find a good hip and pelvic PT to have a patient-provider relationship. This and all my videos are for educational purposes only. So if you need a good hip and pelvic PT, reach out and I’ll help you find one or see if I can help you at www.drgingergarner.com