a possible breakthrough on the hip front?

When my hip pain originally began about three weeks ago, I could have sworn that the problem was something like a dislocation. Range of motion became restricted, and it truly felt as if the head of the left femur had slid, ever so slightly, out of the ball-and-socket joint of the hip. Not being a doctor, and not having any understanding of the complex network of muscles, tendons, and other connective tissue in that region of my body, I had no idea whether a partial dislocation was even possible: it could well be that, with a hip joint, a dislocation is an all-or-nothing proposition—either the joint is in, or it's popped all the way out.

But last night, I rolled over in bed and felt a small but very distinct pop when my body put pressure on my left hip. Since that moment—almost eight hours ago, now—I've taken no aspirin, which is a first since this whole stupid affair began. My range of motion is still restricted: swinging or rotating my thigh too far in certain directions still produces pain. But I have a feeling that whatever was wrong, earlier, has now righted itself.

So I'm going to experiment on myself this morning by not taking any aspirin until I absolutely need it. I've got a long walk to campus ahead of me. If there's pain to be experienced, that walk will conjure it up. We'll see how far I can go. That tiny pop seems to represent progress, given that I haven't needed aspirin for a third of a day, but does it represent significant progress?

UPDATE: I've been aspirin-free for eight hours. There's still some vestigial pain, but it's the sort of pain one would expect after a dislocated joint has popped back into its proper socket. There's been no debilitating pain at all; I limp slightly, but am otherwise walking normally. This comes as a relief; I was starting to worry that taking too much aspirin would lead to a stroke if I sneezed too hard (or pushed too hard while on the toilet!).


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