Question: My current problems began in about September 2014 when I suddenly had pain from my left hip to my left knee. That was diagnosed as a problem with the iliotibial band. Physical therapy was prescribed, and, after about three months of physical therapy, the iliotibial band problem appeared to be over. However, just as iliotibial band pain was going away I began to have pains across my lower back. During the next couple of years, I had a variety of treatments for the back pain condition. Those included physical therapy, chiropractic adjustment, and an operation on my spine to remove bone growths that were thought to be impinging on nerves in the spine. None of that treatment did any good at all for my back pain. In about the fall of 2016, I not only had pain across my lower back, but, in addition, I had stabbing pains in my left leg between the hip and knee. At that point, I realized that there was something unusual about the positions of my legs when I stood up. My typical standing position involved a flexing of the right knee which had the effect of lowering my right side. At that point I realized that my left leg appeared to be shorter than my right leg. Clearly, the bones had not been altered, but somehow the left leg was about an inch shorter than the right. When I recognize that, I obtained heel lifts which I put into my left shoe. With the insertion of the heel lift, the back pain and leg pain disappeared. I thought that my back and leg pain problems were over. That happy condition went on for about a month. I easily walked a mile and had no pain when playing tennis.

However, after about a month of freedom from pain, I rode my bicycle to a tennis club that is between one and two miles away. There were no problems on the ride to the club. But when I came home it was dark and the traffic was very heavy. I was bicycling along a street when I saw a long line of cars ahead of me all stopped for a traffic light. In order to get by that line of cars, I either had to squeeze between cars waiting for the traffic light and other cars parked along the side of the street or ride on the sidewalk. I chose the sidewalk and tried to go from the street to the sidewalk via a narrow driveway. I did not make it to the sidewalk and instead fell over on my bicycle. I was not hurt in the fall, but I was shaken. I realized that I did not have any lights or reflectors or any clothing that was easily visible in the dark. I decided that, instead of trying to ride my bicycle home, I would walk home pushing the bicycle, which is what I did. My walk pushing the bicycle was at least a mile long. After the bicycle pushing incident, my back pains and leg pains returned, even though I continued to wear a heel lift in my left shoe. The back and leg pains are somewhat more sporadic than they were before I started using a heel lift, but they are definitely there. It is difficult to go on walks of any length because of the back and leg pain. I have no idea why use of the same left heel lift which was so effective before the bicycle pushing incident no longer prevents back and leg pain.