Treating Charley, Not Just His Hip Pain

Charley runs — a lot. He runs in the summer, when he’s training for the fall high school cross country season. And he runs in the winter, while training for the spring track season. 

Because Charley runs year-round, he’s well-acquainted with pain and discomfort.

“As a runner, you kind of sign up for some pain,” he said.

But when his left hip started hurting while training this past winter, Charley didn’t wait to tell his parents, Bryan and Carna. He also sought help from his school’s athletic trainer.

Suspecting that the problem stemmed from a lack of core strength, the trainer suggested additional exercises as a first step. Charley followed the trainer’s recommendations, but after a week the pain continued to increase. Bryan, who is also a runner, decided to take his son to the same physical therapist who he sees for injuries.

Charley, then 16, was given a thorough evaluation and soon began a variety of hip strengthening exercises. These were complemented with deep tissue massages, a further effort to reduce his pain.

But after four weeks, there was no improvement. In fact, Charley had begun altering his running motion to compensate for the mounting hip pain. His coaches, teammates and parents all noticed. 

“He wasn’t seeing the kind of progress we expected,” Bryan said. “He was running through pain, but this was too much pain before the season had even started.” 

The family decided to seek help from pediatric experts. In mid-March, Bryan went online and scheduled a next-day appointment with the Sports Medicine team at Cincinnati Children’s. 

Treating the Whole Athlete, Not Just a Partiuclar Pain

At our Mason Campus, Charley met with Kelsey Logan, MD, director of Sports Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s. Immediately, Dr. Logan made an important connection that had eluded everyone else: Charley had grown 3.5 inches in 9 months, but due to his all-year running schedule, he’d been unable to put on the necessary, equivalent weight. 

Basically, his hips were hurting because he needed to add more calories to meet his body’s demands. A simple enough diagnosis, when you step back and look at the whole patient, explained Dr. Logan. 

“Charley was asking a lot of his body, but his strength was not increasing at the same rate,” Dr. Logan said. “We have to focus on nutrition that accompanies [patients’] growth and development. This is why we talk about holistic approach.” 

Simply put, a holistic approach means providing patient treatment and support that takes the whole person into consideration. 

“That was one of the biggest insights — looking at the whole athlete, instead of trying to treat a particular pain,” Bryan said. 

According to Dr. Logan, that’s the key for her as a doctor: listening to patients and allowing them to tell their story. This way she can get a clear picture of what’s going on with them and tailor treatment accordingly. 

“Listening to Charley was the key and what he needed. He was already a strong kid and he only got better after time with the sports medicine team,” Dr. Logan said. 

As a first step, the sports medicine team worked on increasing Charley’s weight and overall nutritional intake. This included having him eat a high protein diet (with lots of granola bars), various high-calorie snacks (such as peanut butter cups) between classes and more snacks before and after workouts. Not only was Charley eating more often throughout the day, but he was also taking vitamin C and D supplements and incorporating different exercises into his daily workout. 

“As a distance runner, he was running indoors and outdoors. During winter conditioning, he had no time to bulk up. He was burning calories the entire time,” Bryan said. “Dr. Logan saw Charley at where he was in his life span as an athlete and recognized the growth element. That was the big difference.”

Getting Stronger, Breaking School Records 

Working with his physical therapy team, Charley was able to continue running and training during his weeks of treatment. The hip pain subsided, and eventually went away. Charley got healthier, grew stronger and began running faster.

The hard work of physical therapy and new diet paid off. This past spring, Charley helped his high school track team set three new school records, including a new best time in the 4 x 800 relay (7:56). 

“I definitely feel like I’ve gotten stronger,” said Charley, now in his senior year. 

He has gained strength but also confidence. And he wants other athletes to know about the importance of not struggling silently if and when pain sets in. 

“If you're feeling pain, then you you've got to seek the help that you need,” said Charley.

Dr. Logan agrees, saying patients should never be afraid to miss time from their sport.

“Sometimes athletes are afraid to talk about their pain for fear they’ll be pulled out of their sport,” said Dr. Logan. “We try to keep athletes training and competing while they heal, so the sooner we know about an issue, the better.

“When people understand the physiology on why they are hurting, that goes a long way towards them helping themselves.” 

(Published October 2024)