Bursitis | Arthritis Information

 

I have a nasty bursitis in my left hip.  It has formed a large pouch that goes about 6cm down my leg from the trochanter.  It fills with about 20 ml of fluid which they have drained twice and then given me a cortisone injection.  It just keeps filling.  It is painful to lay on my side and hurts when I stand up from sitting or am getting in and out of the car.  I've tried rest but there's not much more I can do the settle it down.  The cortisone injections haven't worked for more than a week or so each time.  It's been getting more and more painful over the last 10-12 months.

My rheumy said at the last visit that if it wasn't going to resolve itself it might be better to have it removed.    She is going to refer me to an Ortho when I see her at the end of the month.  Has anyone had a bursectomy?  What is the recovery like and how does the hip go without the bursa? 

ouch  it sounds like mine.. I got a cortisone shot a couple weeks ago and its the first time in a year I can lie on my left side.

 

How did they discover how big it is etc? I am having xrays next week.

I had an ultrasound of my hip.  The tech pointed out the thickened bursa around the femur and was casually moving the wand around my leg to show me stuff.  Then she said 'what the heck is this?'  There was this big pocket of fluid extending from the area of the bursa.  Sort of a long thin neck then a big fluid filled sac.  She said she would have missed it if she had just been looking at the trochanter itself because that wasn't where the problem really was.  About a week or so later I had an ultrasound guided aspiration of about 15-20 ml of fluid from the sac then cortisone put in.  It worked for about a week then the pain was back.  I waited to see if it would resolve but a couple of months later had it all done again.  The aspirated about the same amount and put more cortisone in.  Worked again for a week or so, but the sac just keeps filling up and thats what is causing the pain more than directly over the bursa.  The pressure of the fluid buld up makes it really uncomfortable.  I havent been able to lie on my side for a year or so really.  I guess I'm in for a visit to the Ortho when I get back from holidays.

Have a nice Holiday. Hope the pain will ease up enough for you to enjoy yourself.

Hello Pam,
Sorry to hear about your hip!  I have had a bursectomy in my right shoulder.  I was having terrible pain in it!  I couldn't lie down at night to sleep, I couldn't raise the marker on the white board above my waist.  It felt like there was a knife in my shoulder all the time. 

Last summer after months of PT and steroid injections I had it operated on.  They found a bony overgrowth that was "catching" the tendons and muscles.  They found a large amount of arthritis in my shoulder (this was before I was diagnosed with RA) and they did a bursectomy and removed the bony overgrowth. 

I am so thankful I had it done.  It took more months of PT and healing, but it is 90% back to normal.  Good luck!

 

Oh Great! And I didn't think bursitis could get any worse

Glad to hear you have had a positive result Mary.  Its ALWAYS good to hear someone has had a positive result!

Pammy,
I held out until the end of the last quarter of school (barely) and had it the  day after I posted grades.  I had a week off before summer school, but I was teaching a distance classes and could type with one hand.  So I had several weeks before I had to go back to campus.  That allowed my time to heal and have LOTS of physical therapy. 

I hope you find a job that works for you!
Thanks Mary.  I think with the hip it will be a question of mobility and the ability to drive.  Its my left hip so I should be OK once I can get in and out of the car with relative ease.  If I could get more exposure and sell more jewellery maybe I could do that more which would be nice.

I was told I had bursitis in my left hip too. But all my Dr recommended was physical therapy. I didn't end up going because I already owed the them a ton of money....trying to slowly pay that off, and then we'll see I guess. Mine just burns when I lay on it too long. My right side has started now too....I thought it was just from my weigh actually. But I'm not sure. I'm sure if I could lose some weight, it would help though.

I hope you have good luck with your surgery! Sounds like you're in some awful pain!
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