My legs/hips/low back/pelvis area hurt when I walk and I can't stand with my two feet together sometimes.

by Bethanny
(Victoria BC Canada)

My legs/hips/low back/pelvis area hurt when I walk and I can't stand with my two feet together sometimes.

Hi there,

I will try and explain the best I can what is happening. If you have any questions, please email me... Thank you... I appreciate your time and effort.

The top part of my legs hurt sometimes when I walk. If I'm sitting for any length of time, it hurts when I get up and walk. It feels like my pelvis isn't straight. The pain moves around and isn't there all the time. This started about three months ago as a periodical pain.

I fell the end of February when I was cross country skiing. My legs went out and I fell forward on my face. I didn't notice that my low back was injured at that time and I don't know if this is connected with the fall, but it has become chronic.

It now hurts when I'm in bed. It hurts when I walk and sometimes when I sit (like right now). It feels achy a lot and I feel like I need a hot bath or a heating pad, like I have the flu, but I don't have the flu.

I have had 11 visits with a chiropractor. He always seems to find the hurting spots and I usually always feel better after I leave his office and sometimes it even lasts a whole day, but the next day or sooner it is usually back to where it was.

I have been doing Tai Chi since January and have recently started playing Pickle Ball. I have also done some hiking.. about 3-5 km's each time and I'm usually so sore during and especially afterwards.

I had been quite sedentary, working at a desk job and not getting much exercise for the past year, except the odd walk with a friend, so I thought maybe I wasn't getting enough exercise and so I've increased my exercise. I have also gone kayaking once and on a hike up a mountain which took about 6 or so hours... my knees killed me coming down.

I will be 60 in September. My chiropractor says I will get better in time.

My chiropractor doesn't adjust me on my side. He uses a trigger tool.

My ex-husband of 28 years was a chiropractor and he use to adjust me on my side and I never had any problems. If I ever did have a problem, he was always able to fix it in one or just a few treatments.

I am baffled by what seems to be happening to me. I just want this pain to go away. I finally have a new man in my life who likes to do things and go places and this problem is stopping us from taking on anything like a good long hike or even walking a normal walk. Our walks always consist of pain and me limping on my right leg. I'm tired of complaining of my legs and hips hurting.

What do you think? My chiropractor didn't take any x-rays. We are in BC and they don't seem to do that in very many offices here.

Thank you for listening.... Bethanny

Hello Bethanny,
Perhaps an absurd question, but any chance of a consultation with your ex? Do you still talk to each other?

The big question is whether this is a hip problem, or a back problem that is radiating to the leg. So, here are a couple tests:

1. Bend slowly straight forward, is the pull in both legs much the same? Feel normal?

2. Now bend backwards and to the side. Pain? Where?

3. Lying flat on your back, pull your knee to the chest. Now towards the opposite shoulder, now rotate the knee (actually the hip, using the knee as a lever). Hurt in the upper leg? Groin?

4. Sitting in a normal chair, do the Slump test for sciatica ...

5. Much more difficult, in fact I normally suggest you ask your chiropractor to do the stretch test for the Femoral nerve. Lying on your side, on the worse leg side, reach behind you and pull you ankle backwards, extending the hip and bending the knee. Awkward. Remember the pull in the front of the upper leg. Now repeat lying on the opposite side. Pull the bad leg backwards. Is there a difference? Particularly sore? Where?

I used to take more x-rays until I read research findings that 7% of cancer is caused by medical and chiropractic x-rays. Now I often do them mainly on patients not responding. You'd fit into that category.

Since chiropractors started getting sued, many have changed over to the trigger tool. Less likely to injure, but also much less effective in my opinion.

It's around this time that I would in any case think of referring a patient not responding to a colleague with a different technique. A change?

Find a good chiropractor is perhaps your next stop.

Let me know the results of the above tests. Keep to the same thread.

I hope this has contributed.


Go from My legs/hips/low back/pelvis area hurt when I walk and I can't stand with my two feet together sometimes. to other Chiropractic Conditions often treated…

Dr B