Ouch. Definitely be gentle with yourself. Do you have sciatica? I did something to my left hip in June while I was doing yoga. The pain started in my left glute and shot down my leg. It's gotten better, but I know it's still there. I can't do things like cross my left leg over my right to put my gym shoes on and I realized the other day I can't move my pinky toe on my left foot. I just didn't want to go to physical therapist in the middle of a pandemic. But I was like you where I needed a lot of help doing things. My husband had to help me up from the couch and I had to do it in phases, because the pain was so intense and it came in waves.
Well, according to my doctor, it's bursitis. I'm really not sure, though the couple of times I got an injection, it did help a lot, but it's never gone away completely. It's always there, and if I walk too much, too fast, or move wrong, I get an excruciating pain that feels like my hip is going to break and it freezes. If I step wrong, I get stuck for a few seconds. It feels like...you know how it's like a ball and socket? It feels like the ball is in a wonky position and is grinding against the socket. Like, if you get the bolt wrong in a nut and it gets stuck and won't turn? That's what it feels like it's doing. I have to wait for a second for the pain to abate, and then slowly slide my leg and kind of turn it because I can't stand up straight. When I was pregnant with E, I had what they called "pelvic instability" and that never quite went away...it's been painful for me to stand up after I've been sitting down for a while ever since. If I've been sitting down to dinner, for example, it always takes a minute or two before I can actually walk normally. Then a few years ago, I went to go down the stairs and I took a step and there was a popping sensation in my right hip, a horrible pain (I screamed) and I had to sit down. I couldn't get up. The doctor thought I had torn a muscle, but after 3 weeks, it wasn't better. So I went back and that's when he said it was an infection in the bursa. He gave me an injection and it felt better for a month or two, but came back, so I got another injection....that must have been in 2015, because we went to Disney in 2016 and I had heard you could only get 3 injections, and I was waiting for the 3rd one if I needed it before we went to Disney. The initial injury was in October, then the 2nd shot was January or Feb. of 2016. I was mostly fine after that shot, just had to be careful not to walk too fast or too long. I took a LOT of breaks at Disney. Then last January I had to get another shot because I was having trouble walking again. Sometimes I have bouts of it where it's painful for a few weeks, but if I take it easy, it gets better. But I definitely feel it if I overdo it, usually at work. Since work is mostly walking, and usually at a pretty good pace, it can get really bad toward the end of a shift. If I've done too much, it freezes on me when I try to sit down or lift up my leg. So that's what happened Tuesday night...I overdid it at work, and then couldn't get my leg in the car without lifting it up with my hands. Then after sitting in the car, it was too stiff to move....I couldn't stand up straight and couldn't move that leg. I had to shuffle along to get into the house. It was fine after a night's sleep...or as fine as it ever is. Like I said, it never goes completely away. It's always a little painful, but mostly I'm so used to it that it doesn't bother me much. But in the last year or so, the pain also radiates to my tail bone, which is what makes me doubt it's bursitis, but when I went to the doctor in January and explained that it hurt in my tailbone now more than in my hip, he still said it's the bursa, he gave me an injection, and I could walk again.
Sorry....that's a lot to read. But no, I don't think it's sciatica.