I woke up with hip pain on my left side this morning, another validation of my theory that my right brain is always out to lunch, else my left side wouldn’t develop all these problems.

I limped around all morning, and decided I would go easy on stretches for the left side, but not eliminate them. Whenenever I have had arthritic pain in the past, in the foot (left again!) due to torque from pirouettes, in the fingers from stressful piano work, badly done, or in an elbow from doing wall pushups. I massage, I apply heat, I stretch and do full range of movement and I stop, at least temporarily the thing I was doing that might have caused it, in this case, splits where the left leg is in the back. This regimen has always worked for me.

Anyway, I decided to look up arthritic treatments on the internet in case I was missing something new that might be helpful. I happened on a site specifically termed osteo arthritis in the hip and got an extremely convoluted article meant for medical professionals. As near as I can tell from this article, the professionals mention what I do but are skeptical that this method has long term benefits. It may be that treatment of most patients is confined to the elderly who have never used their bodies.

My conclusion is that medical research falls far short of what is possible. I would no sooner listen to one of these doctors than I would to my kitty, who has my best interests at heart but knows horseshit about my problems.

I’ll just go with my self therapy that has always worked for me in the past. And yes, dear doctors, it lasts longer than the maximum two years you have forecast. My toe hasn’t had a twinge in ten years and it was bad there for a while.

xx, Teal