Jessica’s Story - Hip Pain journey

Before Align

I’ve been an independent person my whole life. I own multiple businesses. I’m the person that has always solved everyone else's problems. When I started at Align, I had completely lost my independence. I wasn’t myself. I couldn’t walk through the grocery store. I couldn’t do the dishes. My hip pain took everything from me. It’s not just that the pain takes away the activities you love, it changes who you are from the inside out. I felt hopeless and very, very angry. I couldn’t be the wife, mother, or grandmother I wanted to be. I couldn’t be the person I wanted to be. 

I thought I had tried everything. I had done Rolfing, lots of massage, chiropractic, three rounds of physical therapy, and steroid injections. I was taking 24 ibuprofen a day and developed an ulcer. My leg was atrophied and nothing was helping. The pain was always there. It was draining the life out of me. 

I went to an orthopedic doctor and got an MRI. The MRI was misread and the doctor said there was nothing he could do for me. I knew there was something severely wrong. I told the doctor I couldn’t accept there was nothing wrong so he offered me PRP injections.  I decided not to have the injections at that time as I felt they wouldn’t help my situation. 

Every step of my pain journey, before coming to Align, was infuriating and discouraging. Reports wouldn’t get sent between offices, and the treatments weren’t targeted or fixing a specific problem. It seemed like they were throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. It seemed like no one had a plan to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it. 

Coming to Align 

When I started at Align, I finally had hope. We were going to work a clear process to find all the possible causes of my pain and fix each and every one of them. They told me ‘It wasn’t if I would be out of pain, it was merely a matter of when’. They walked with me through the whole process. They understood my problem at a deeper level than anyone had before. Also, when I joined Align I found a community of other people who had challenges with their own bodies. The coaches and the other clients understood what it was like to lose the activities you love, have limitations, be frustrated, and be exhausted by the pain. 

Having the coaches to lead you and people around you who understand what it’s like to be in pain makes all the difference. 

The journey

We started by working on my joints and inflammation. My pelvis was all twisted. My glute and hip flexor weren't working. My inner thighs, TFLs, and piriformis muscles were locked down. We started increasing my joint range of motion and loosening the chronically tight muscles. We also worked on getting my pelvis realigned and my glutes and hip flexors working. Between the mobility work and retraining those atrophied muscles to fire, my pelvis began to stabilize. We also worked on my nutrition to reduce inflammation. 

Within a few months, my pain was down from an average of a 9 out of 10 to averaging a 3 out of 10. It was so much better. I could breathe again. 

My coach (Matthew) still wasn’t satisfied. He sent me to UCSF for an MRI and a second opinion. He said, “My hip wasn’t progressing as it should”. I was thrilled to be out of severe pain but I could also tell something still wasn’t right. 

When I got to UCSF they immediately recognized a major structural problem with my hip. The top of my femur had collapsed nearly 3 inches inside my hip socket. They recommended a hip replacement. I was furious that my original doctor overlooked something so dramatic. It likely extended the severe pain by two years. 

My coach reminded me I needed to be strong to have this problem completely behind me, and I couldn’t get as strong as I needed to be without the hip replacement. So I went and had the hip replacement. Recovery was hard physically and mentally. I definitely got a bit depressed. My coach called me 4 weeks after my surgery and told me it was time to get back to work and finish the process of getting strong. I started back at Align the next day. 

We started slow, first making sure everything was working like it should. Then we focused on building my strength. Week by week I got stronger and stronger. 

Now I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. When I go shopping for a thousand pounds of groceries for my restaurant, I can unload my own car. I can lift and carry things. I can get huge boxes of cans off the top shelf. I don’t have to ask someone for help. 

I can live my life again. 

Passing it on 

What advice would you give to people in a similar situation to you? 

Don’t try to fix it alone. Get help. There’s tremendous value in getting the help of someone who knows what’s going on with your body. Also, coming to Align allows you to be alongside people going through something similar. It’s extremely valuable to have other people around you who are fighting to move forward, get out of pain, and stay strong.