Bone Spur Fixes?

The pain in my wife's hip hasn't been improving like we'd hoped. Originally they thought the pain was connected to her other nerve pains which have mostly improved dramatically. The hip has not which has led to some x rays showing a bone spur on her hip. The doctor's assistant thinks she's had it a long time and her body compensated for it pre-stroke but as the nerves relearn their jobs they have turned this into excruciating pain. Has anyone here had one and is there a good treatment for it? I am thinking it could just be ground down but I am often wrong.

I don't have a spur, but have other hip issues. There's no easy answer, unfortunately. I've been to several ortho doctors and they all say something similar. If you're over about 40 years of age, doing arthroscopic surgery can be a potentially slippery slope. The hip is a very tightly held together joint and messing with it can be trouble. Hopefully the doctor will recommend and exhaust all conservative measures first. Physical therapy, injections, etc... I spent over two years trying those with limited success so I tried arthroscopic surgery. Had it 16 months ago. I was feeling good for 5 or 6 months once I recovered, but pain is now back like it was before. This is probably a "just live with it" situation. I have zero interest in a replacement at this point, the pain isn't bad enough yet. Hopefully that's at least 10-15 years down the road. I do what I can to take care of myself and strengthen the muscles around it. At the same time, as long as I can take the pain, I live my life and enjoy it.

Lay her on her side, and have a helper hold a rope for her to bite down on. Remove the necessary parts carefully and tag each one. Go easy at first, gentle taps. Once you chip off the bulk of it start with a 300 grit paper and work up until the area is smooth. Assembly is the reverse of removal.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Lay her on her side, and have a helper hold a rope for her to bite down on. Remove the necessary parts carefully and tag each one. Go easy at first, gentle taps. Once you chip off the bulk of it start with a 300 grit paper and work up until the area is smooth. Assembly is the reverse of removal.

Run those through an autoclave first and you have a very close aproximation of what the orthopedic surgeons use. Carpenters with a medical degree.

I would have guessed that they'd have gotten to the point of using a Dermal tool and a strong vacuum to remove all the tiny chips and ground up bone dust

I had both feet operated on to remove extra bone buildup around the joint of my big toes. Not exactly a bone spur, but similar I suppose. The result was no more pain, so it was worth it to me!

I used to drill holes in people's heads with a hand drill like your grandpa used to use. That and a stainless drill bit was about it.

Wally, first off, anything that a "not-a-doctor" tells you needs to be ignored. Doctor's assistants, PA, NP's, whatever. Talk to the doctor (as difficult as that may be, but let's not get sidetracked.)

Cousin had to have surgery for bone spurs. Ground down the bad section and applied something to encourage the bone not to grow the spur back. Took 8 months to finish rehab she is fine now. She felt nothing until one day her leg gave out and she fell to the floor. Then had pain for three days before getting the news.

Thanks for the information. We usually see a real doctor except at the pain center where we often see the assistant. She is the one that did the X-rays since we were hoping they'd be able to fix this with a shot like they did her lower back. I like to have some idea of what can be done before seeing the doctors because some of the ones we met have been content to say "you've had a stroke, these are things you live with" and others are more willing to explore options. I was hoping there was something like grinding them away because they are making it painful to walk any kind of distance.

I started ultrasound treatment at a chiropractor for a nasty berkeleying heel spur. Their claim is periodic ultrasound treatments will weaken the spur and it will eventually break away, then dissolve in the body. Never followed through with the full course of treatments tho so take that FWIW.

I had met one person who had a spur ground down but it grew back w/ a vengeance. Chiropractor shared the same opinion.

Not sure how it could apply to hips or other areas but might be worth a look.

fasted58 wrote: I started ultrasound treatment at a chiropractor for a nasty berkeleying heel spur. Their claim is periodic ultrasound treatments will weaken the spur and it will eventually break away, then dissolve in the body. Never followed through with the full course of treatments tho so take that FWIW. I had met one person who had a spur ground down but it grew back w/ a vengeance. Chiropractor shared the same opinion. Not sure how it could apply to hips or other areas but might be worth a look.

FIL had a spur in ankle that stopped his tennis playing. Ultrasound to the rescue and still good ten years later. I like fixes that dont involve cutting.

I have a coupon for the HD ultrasonic cleaner...

Fwiw, I've had several bone spurs ground down or off. It's worked well. Unfortunately for me, I keep growing them back.