Ongoing ITB injury, failed treatments, subsequent misery: please help

SteveG10

My girlfriend has had ongoing ITB pain since a 22-mile marathon training run in February (before which she'd never had the injury) - it's now June. Since then she's been to a GP, a physio, a sports doctor; had an MRI which confirmed ITB, stuck religiously to foam rolling and significant hip/glute/quad strength programmes, got a standing desk at work and even tried a corticosteroid injection. Nothing has made it any better and she's now in pain just walking and sometimes even when sitting.

She's now at the stage where she thinks she's just going to have to "give up" / "it's only getting worse" / "I feel like I'm just stuck with it forever" / "I've tried everything", and is regularly extremely upset by the futility of everything and how it appears to have ruined our favourite thing to do. It's making her genuinely unhappy in everyday life.

My question has two parts really:
1. Does anyone have any stories of four-month-long ITB misery which then got better?
2. Is there anything left to try? I'm regularly left trying to console her and, having scoured the internet, am out of options for things to suggest / general optimism.

Any help here would be seriously appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

MsE

Your poor girlfriend has my sympathies.  I have had twinges in the past as a novice to training but been able to nip it in the bud each time.  After running a few years, it didn't seem to bother me again.  This looks a great video on releasing the hips and glutes.  If nothing else, it may give her 5 mins of relief (and hope?) each day.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRyjxxUT6Yg&feature=youtu.be

I would also say that if she has tried everything, then perhaps she has been told to try it all from the same perspective.  Sometimes just a teeny adjustment makes all the difference.  Good luck! 

Pewpewpew

Where is the pain - outside of knee, pelvis?

There is a lot of false information and outdated treatment plans provided by people who lack a clinical knowledge of the structures involved.  The IT band generally will not directly respond to foam rolling, if anything it will aggravate it.  What you are doing is disturbing the surrounding tissue.  Imagine foam rolling a piece of leather, it would result in very little change.  The IT band is basically a tendon for the TFL and glute max.  They are two structures you can manipulate. 

Has the various people involved in your girlfriends treatment assessed her lumbar spine?  Quite often, the muscles of the lower back can pull on the pelvis, resulting in tension down one side, leading to the issues you describe.

In the majority of cases it is a strength issue, however, I've seen a number of cases where there is a problem with the lumbar spine or something higher up the chain.