Aches & Pains - Hip, Knee, Shin

For 3-4 years I've had pain in my left hip.  All of the sudden, it got really sore, start hurting and got tp the point 4 winters ago where I couldn’t walk it hurt so badly.  My good friend is a physical therapist for a major university sports medicine program and kept persuading me to make an appointment to see the hip specialist.  So I had an MR Arthigram done and the doctor said because of the geometry of my hip bone, the cartilage in my hip socket has worn down and arthritis is now present.  He told me because of my young age to try and deal with it for 10 - 15 years and then think about a hip replacement?  This is the exact reason why I hate going to see a doctor.  What a waste.  I found this whole thing hard to believe because of how it happened but what do I know.  Anyway, for the last year, now I have pain and steady aching in my knee and sometimes lower in my shin.  When sitting in a chair, I have to elevate the leg rest because it aches so badly.  Then even with my legs elevated, there is a constant aching and sometimes it like pulses and gets really severe.  I have to get up and walk around for a while.  When I sleep, there is only one position I can stand to lay and that's on my right side.  If laying on my left side my hip hurts/aches after 3-5 minutes.  If I fall asleep this way, when I wake 30-60 minutes later from the pain, the pain is so terrible and I struggle to get turned back over.   If laying on my back my hip & knee & sometimes shin, all hurts/aches.
Basically, my left leg/hip is always really stiff for about the last 4 years.  My knee and shin always aches, sometimes really severe.  Sometimes it’s just in the knee, sometimes just in the shin.
I'm 37 years old, 5'-10" and 200lbs.  It's not like I'm extremely overweight and sit around all day.  I have always been active as far as walking a lot on my job.  I don’t run or work out.  Any ideas where to start.
Jim