What do you know about rolfing?

The saga of my life-long issues with walking continues.  Today I saw a new doctor, a physiatrist who added some new information, although she never suggested any silver bullets.

I knew there was something different about my right hip when I was a child and other children would tease me about the way I ran, sort of kicking out my right leg.  I knew it again when I was 17 and in the Jr. Miss pageant.  As we practiced walking down the ramp, the “coaches” kept telling me not to swing my hips, as though I was doing that to attract attention.  It was just the way I walked and they had to live with it.  I still managed to be the second runner-up despite the sway in my walk.

I’ve seen more specialists that I can count over the years, who have suggested everything from a leg length discrepancy to polio to CP in utero.  But no one has ever been able to say anything definitively or give me a solution.

The closest I came to an understanding was when my long-time PT and friend suggested that it was just the uniqueness of ME and I might have to live with it.

Today’s doctor was quick to take up the challenge after hearing how many others had walked away shaking their heads.  She did a thorough exam and then watched me walk up and down the hall a few times. 

She quickly concluded that my right hip was hung in its socket at the wrong angle and probably had been that way since my birth.  This angle problem causes my femur to rotate inward to the point where when I lie on my back, my right knee isn’t pointing straight up at the ceiling.

She said my breach birth could have been at least partially responsible for this problem.  Or it could have even been hip displasia at birth, noting that back then the doctors didn’t check newborns for such things.

The good news is that I wasn’t in her office today with the extreme pain that most of the patients who go to her practice experience.  I was there simply because I have balance and gait issues when I walk.  I am grateful for my relative lack of pain (because I live with someone who is in a lot of pain and it is definitely not good.)

We talked about what could be done to fix or at least help my problem.  Ironically she said the only possible solution would be a hip replacement in which the femur was positioned differently in the socket.  Perhaps if my hip replacement had not been under emergency conditions, I could have discussed this with my surgeon ahead of time.

Since I’m not ready to go through that again, she suggested some things my personal trainer Emily and I could work on.  She also wants me to see a rolfer, someone who does deep tissue work and who might be able to loosen up my hip flexors, which are unbelievably tight.  The picture above is of a rolfer.

So that’s the story for now.  Meanwhile I find myself often wanting a hand of any gender to hold onto when I have lots of walking to do.  I am beginning to understand why it is such hard work for me.