kutsuwamushi in little_details

[ANON POST] Old Hip Injury

Feb 09, 2012 22:56

I have a character who recieved some sort of injury to one of his hips when he was 17 years old during a fight (which I'd like to keep knifeless, and the setting means that guns would be out of place). At the time he was tall, fairly fit and healthy, yet it did mean he was unable to walk without having some sort of support (like a crutch or ( ... )

tags: ~medicine: injuries to order, ~medicine: historical

Comments (5)

enviropony

Tendon injuries are definitely prone to acting up later if they don't heal well - and sometimes even if they do. They tend to be easier to re-injure because of their narrow structure, I believe, and how brittle/weak scar tissue is. My experience was that they hurt like hell the first time, I couldn't use the injured body parts for a week or two afterwards, and then cautiously and gingerly for months after that. It's also a pretty distinctive pain that makes you go, "Oh look, it's happened again," when you stress or damage the site of the original injury. You can't 'exercise' your way out of a tendon injury like you can out of sore or weak muscles because exercise just pulls at the injured bits and makes things worse ( ... )

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sashatwen

I second this. The tendons on your hip are actually the strongest in your whole body. Tendon damage without any other side-effect is rare in the hip for this reason, but I guess a sharp knife to the hip could do it. I'd find some kind of hairline fracture or any other kind of joint damage more likely though, as one rarely comes without the other.

Maybe a dislocated hip would be another option? This could stretch the tendons, cause internal bleeding and even a fracture, and and would be treated by repositioning the hip even in a medieval setting - a fairly non-complicated procedure.

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sirriamnis

I third this. I have a trick hip from an old biking injury (super deep pothole hiding in a puddle for the lose). Every once in a while it will flare up, and/or threaten to re-dislocate.

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antongarou

if you're looking for a way that injury could happen then what most easily comes to mind is your character trying a body kick and the other guy leaning back a bit to let it pass in front of him and then catching the foot and raising it sharply. This will stress both the hip and the knee on that leg, and might tear a tendon or dislocate the hip- you don't want it to break the knee, story-wise, because with that level of medicine it will never actually recover.

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(anonymous)

If you are looking for something that is inconvenient, but not crippling, try researching something called Piriformis Syndrome.

I fell when I was 18, took the full force of that fall on my hip. No break, just Major blunt force trauma to the hip and surrounding tissue. I did not need support, but I did walk with a pronounced limp for a month. For the next several years, I would have problems with the sciatic nerve being pinched. It eventually "healed" to a minor annoyance with time and exercise but if I stressed it, I would be hurting the next day.

Over 20 years later, I experienced a sudden return of the nerve issues. As it turns out that fall damaged a muscle in my hip/back area called the Piriformis. That muscle crosses over the sciatic nerve, when it is traumatized, it can push against the nerve causing pain and/or numbness. I now have a chronic case of Piriformis syndrome.

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kutsuwamushi in little_details

[ANON POST] Old Hip Injury

Comments (5)

enviropony

sashatwen

sirriamnis

antongarou

(anonymous)

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