My hip pain has not resolved despite it having been seven weeks. I talked to my physical therapist a couple of weeks ago and he recommended a new doctor to me who is good with younger active patients with hip injuries. I looked him up and he’s published a ton of research and is team physician to several area college teams. I had my initial appointment with him today, and he seems to be really good. I didn’t tell him what my PT thought was going on at first just to see if he thought the same thing, and he did: gluteus medius tendonitis and trochanteric bursitis. He’s having me do formal physical therapy (I was just doing stretches on my own at home) and he’s going to reevaluate in six weeks and if it’s not better by then, he’ll try a steroid injection.

I called my physical therapist as soon as I got home from my appointment and he told me he had a light afternoon and offered me an appointment 45 minutes from the time I called. I was really glad to be able to start today so I can recover sooner. The only downside is that if this injury had waited a month, my insurance would cover it because my benefits would have reset. That means I’ll be doing self-pay until New Year’s, by which time I’ll be almost done with my course of treatment if all goes well. My therapist and the office manager were really apologetic about me having to pay myself, but I honestly don’t even care that my benefits are used up. I knew that going in and I knew what the fee was from last time, so it was expected. I’m just glad to be able to get some help getting back to my normal activities and not being in pain every day. The cost is worth it to get my life back.

Today’s PT session focused on a thorough evaluation of my hip injury and setting up a plan. My therapist told me that we needed to try to figure out why my foot is still an issue because if I’m limping on it and not walking normally, it will affect other areas of my body. I was very happy to hear that because I would love to know what’s actually wrong with my foot. I have nothing against the surgeon who fixed my tendon; that’s 90% better or more than it was before surgery and I’m grateful for that, but there’s no way I’m having surgery on my foot again anytime soon until I feel absolutely certain of the problem.

Other than those two appointments, my day was filled with lots of phone calls and emails. The asthma inhaler I had been taking all year is suddenly not allowed to be filled at the local pharmacy anymore. Instead, it has to be filled through the mail because it’s a maintenance medication, which costs more sometimes. At the pharmacy, I was using a manufacturer coupon to get the copay reduced to $10/month. The mail order pharmacy doesn’t take coupons and the copay there is $63. I emailed my family doctor and asked to switch to something with a lower copay and he was nice enough to change it for me without me coming in for an appointment. The weird problem is that the generic version of what I switched to costs $40 more per month than the name brand, and the doctor sent the generic on the prescription because generic is always cheaper, except apparently in this case. I found that out because I called the mail order pharmacy and made them give me the copay amounts to make sure they matched what I was told they were supposed to be by the insurance company, and indeed the name brand inhaler is cheaper than the generic. So now the pharmacy is supposed to contact the doctor’s office tomorrow to get the prescription changed to the name brand, and hopefully that will clear things up. I bothered my doctor so much today with an email chain while we tried to work out the issue that I really hope tomorrow will be the last I’ll have to cause him trouble.

That’s all I have for now, and hopefully the next time I write I’ll have some good news. I’m benched from running for the next six weeks but I can still bike as long as it doesn’t hurt, so at least I can try to keep up my conditioning. I have major doubts that I will be making my first 5k in February. I wasn’t given a clear answer when I asked my PT, which I understand because it’s still too early to know. If I have to push it back, so be it. There’s no use stressing about something I have little control over. All I can do is put my best effort into PT and trust that God will let everything work out eventually. So, until next time, I hope everyone is doing well!