I was in a rollover bus accident and hurt my knee I had an x-ray done which showed that everything was okay but it hurts sometimes Just recently my hip has been bothering me what could be wrong?

Answer 1

You need to consider getting your lower back checked (MRI or CT scan), as the kind of pain you're describing is consistent with a problem at the L3/L4 disk. Knowing which nerve pathway is affected will tell you which disk it is.

The L3/4 disk nerve pathway runs from just below the middle of the spine, down the side of the spine, across the waist in the back, across the hip, across the thigh and finally stopping at the inside of the knee. Depending on how bad the nerve is being compressed by the disk, you should be able to feel the pain along the entire nerve path, which is also why it hurts so much.

If it is a disk problem, you should be able to feel pain at various points along the nerve path, if not the entire nerve path itself. If you don't, then that's probably not it - there's not mistaking that kind of pain, which is sharp & stabbing like a needle.

If the pain is just in the knee (top or front, or all around) and it's swollen, and the pain is just in the hip as well, it could also be just residual bone bruising from the accident. Most people feel pain in areas where they've been injured before from scar tissue buildup for years aferward, many times during cold weather or low barometric pressure days / high humidity.

Keep in mind too that injuries like that also affect deep tissue, muscle and tendons, so it's not uncommon for them to hurt under certain conditions - stress, cold temps, low pressure systems, etc.

The kind of pain can also help you narrow down the cause:

Sharp, stabbing, needle-like pain - Nerve pain

Tingly, area "falls asleep" pins and needle pain - nerve path being cut off

Burning - damaged muscle, tendon

Dull, throbbing, aching - bone, deep tissue, muscle pain