I am a 24 year old female. When I was 13 I had a bone cyst in my right femur and I broke my femur playing in the back yard. Because of the cyst I was put into traction immediately, and then about a week later I had surgery where they put in a metal plate and 8 screws. When I broke my leg I was running down the hill in our back yard, and the bone just snapped because it had been majorly weakened by the cyst. I continued to fall down the hill, and landed at the bottom with my hip folded in a way that my leg actually landed on my chest, and my knee hyperextended.

I have had pain for the last 10 years, sometimes it was nothing major, and sometimes it is excruciating! I have gone through several different kinds of medication, and am currently on methadone (pain), bextra (anti-inflammatory), and zanaflex (muscle relaxor). This seems to be helping, but still some days even the medication doesn't help. I am waiting now to hear back from a clinic about 50 miles away to see if I can get in for acupuncture.

Sometimes the pain is right in the area where the plate and screws are, so I know what that is. But I also get this horrible pain in my right hip that is so bad sometimes I can't even bear weight on it. Somebody told me that when you feel pain in your hip that it is generally a problem in your lower back, whereas hip problems are felt in the femur usually. I also have scoliosis though, so it is hard to tell where the pain in my hip is actually coming from. I had knee surgery a couple years after having the plate and screws put in, but nothing has ever been done to repair my hip. (my hip actually folded up and landed on my torso in the original accident when I broke my leg)

i think the problem my hip, but x-rays show nothing, I can't have an mri because of the metal, but I am going for a cat scan next week. Hopefully it will show something, so that we can decide if there is a treatment or surgery to repair it.

Any advice or suggestions on alternative pain medications, or natural therapies??? The chiropractor always seems to be able to get me in shape for a couple of days, but I can't always afford to go - and he wants me there usually about twice a week. (so you're talking hundreds of dollars a month, and insurance doesn't pay for it)