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.garnerpelvichealth.com. I’m happy to help!
????Good luck!
Ten Tips for Getting the Most of our Your Hip Injection
????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.garnerpelvichealth.com
