A "hip issue"

I don't know if you remember my "hip issue" that I had last summer, well, I've never thought it totally went away, although my hip feels better, it hasn't been very flexible no matter how much I stretch it.  And I've had an ache in my thigh on the same side for a little while, which I attributed to my tight hips.  I just figured I had knots in my hip that were pressing on a nerve, so I've been "rolling" it with a lacrosse ball against a wall.

I decided I should get it looked at to make sure it wasn't something more serious.  I was thinking cancer.  So this week I went to the doctor and she ordered some x-rays on my leg.  Yesterday I heard back from the dr's office . . . my leg is fine.

However, the x-ray caught my hip and a small part of my lower back.  I have "mild osteoarthritis" in my hip.  And something called pars defect.  After lots of time on google, I discovered that pars defect is caused by a stress fracture in your lower back.  There is a thin bone that can be broken and if not treated right away it doesn't heal correctly.

The "spondylolsis" is just the fancy word for the stress fracture.  The "spondylolisthesis" is how it heals if not treated.  The biggest incident I remember, where I always said I "cracked my tailbone" was one time when Damian was very young, 3 or 4, and I was not with my husband.  He was in a timeout in his room and I was sitting at the top of the stairs listening to him cry.  I decided to sneak down the stairs and was trying to tiptoe, well, my toes missed the second from the top step and I went airborne and landed on the third from the bottom step on my backside.  I had just gotten a job and didn't have insurance, so I didn't go to the doctor.

Well, over time the vertebrae that was fractured starts to slip forward, which can cause all sorts of problems, including, you guessed it, a pinched nerve. 

The white line indicates the vertebrae
that has slipped forward. (not my x-ray)

The most common symptom is lower back pain, which I don't have, but according to what I've found online other symptoms are leg pain, numbness, and/or weakness. 

Anyway, what I've seen online for treatment is surgery if it's bad enough.  They would fuse my vertebrae together.  The good news about this is that (again according to the internet) full recovery is often achieved. 

So at this point, I don't know where I stand with all this information.  This is all stuff I found online.  I had to go back to get another x-ray on my back, the first one wasn't for my back, it was for my leg, it just happened to catch my lower back.  I went yesterday for that x-ray and I probably won't hear anything till next week.

And honestly, at this moment, I don't know whether to be more concerned with the pars defect or the arthritis.  If the pars defect can be fixed, then the arthritis is the more serious condition. That won't get better.  All of this will affect my running.  Which really has me depressed.