Severe hip pain

[Anonymous]

hi there,

This is OP again. I am still having the sciatic pain (which is relatively mild at this point) but I have to say that getting a better (more supportive) desk chair for work has made a HUGE difference to my hips. I have also told my friends and family (especially my husband) to point out when I am slouching. This is soooo annoying, but it's worth it, because I've noticed an improvement immediately with my hips. I felt so much better on Friday that I was able to get some exercise over the weekend (even after a 5 hour car ride) and I haven't been in any real pain since. I've also made a habit of gently stretching every day before I get out of bed, and I'm not sure if this has helped or not but I haven't felt pain with the stretching the way I had been doing in the past. I'm not comfortable with advil and don't even like to take tylenol very often. (Everyone has their own ways of being conservative in a pregnancy, I guess, and mine is to try to deal with all pain as naturally as possible). That's not to say that I would be unwilling to take a relatively safe painkiller if this kept worsening and really put my life on hold, but so far I've been able to make some changes.

Agree with a PP that icing, as opposed to just heating, is VERY helpful. I alternate, though, because though icing does seem to reduce the inflamation, there is nothing at all soothing about it, so I reward myself for dealing with ice for 15 minutes with a nice lean against the heating pad for 20.