Advice: Hip misalignment due to short leg/scoliosis

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I've been dealing with hip pain radiating down my left leg for about five months now. My left leg and hip will get really tight and the back of my left leg and side of my left ankle will spasm the more I walk on it. The spasm is usually the most intense at night, maybe because I've been walking on the leg all day. I occasionally experience left foot cramps while lying down at night, too.

I was also told by a masseuse that my hips are and rotated right, but this is partially due to slight scoliosis I've had since I was 12, and wasn't causing problems up until recently.

I had a laparoscopic appendectomy a few months ago, and I honestly think the scar tissue/incisions from this procedure may have shortened the muscle on my left side enough to cause an issue. I'm not super athletic, and I really didn't exercise or stretch enough during the post-op period.

A chiropractor I saw told me I have an anatomically short left leg, and that the appendectomy could have been what pushed the leg length discrepancy to the point of dysfunction.

Before all this happened, my posture and muscle strength wasn't great to be honest. Also, I've had somewhat of an anterior pelvic tilt pretty much my whole life, but I'm not sure if that could be adding to the issue or not.

After much puzzling and researching, I'm pretty sure I have some type of muscular imbalance (probably in my iliopsoas, core muscles, and lower back). I also think the reason my hips have shifted may be to compensate for the short left leg.

I've been doing some gentle hip stretches. I'm also still seeing doctors and looking into alternative medicine like osteopathic massage, but I'm getting frustrated with the fact that I'm not sure which route to take to help regain my ability to walk normally. I'm also looking into acupuncture to hopefully break up any scar tissue remaining from the appendectomy.

I was wondering if anyone else has had any similar experiences with hip dysfunction and/or one short leg and/or abdominal surgery? What helped you? Also, has anyone had success with NUCCA chiropractic for misaligned hips?

Also, just a side note: If anyone ever gets abdominal or pelvic surgery, it's a great idea to schedule physical therapy afterwards while you're regaining muscle function. For some reason, doctors don't require PT after abdominal/pelvic surgery but it can prevent a lot of issues further down the road. I wish I had known this earlier, but ah, hindsight is 20/20, I suppose.

Thanks for reading.

I haven't had a shortened limb but reading your post I would still recommend you work on fixing your anterior pelvic tilt as it will help your back pain regardless of the cause. Anterior pelvic tilt causes excessive lordosis which will make any back pain worse. I would do hip thrusts lying on your back, 2-3 sets of 20 even just body weight, 2 to 3 times a week to strengthen your glutes which will help pull your pelvis back into place.

I would also stretch out your quads and hip flexors. Quads are easy to stretch by having your leg pulled up behind your back, if you push your hip forward while doing this you can stretch your hip flexors at the same time. Another stretch would be doing lunges, but I find those more painful. If you warm up your hips muscles before hand they will be easier and less painful to stretch. Some planks should help strengthen your core muscles to fix your anterior pelvic tilt from the front.

If I were you I'd stick to massage or a chiropractor, I doubt acupuncture would be a better option than those two for breaking up scar tissue/tight muscles. In the meantime you could try getting an insert in your shoe to compensate for the limb discrepancy.

I've had 6 bone surgeries in my life and I always opted to do physical therapy after each one of them.

One of the people I use to work with had one foot shorter than the other. He wore a special shoe on one foot that helped to even out the height on his shorter foot.