Chronic Tendinitis + Tear in hip flexor

the original injury was years ago doing intense soccer training (this is the left hip flexor, though I have slighly pulled the right one too once).  of course I was young (high school) and stupid so I still trained hard.  That is one of many strings of injuries I had at that age so I'm no longer the super skinny kid i once was. I've got some meat on me, though i'm not fat, just out of shape.

Last year i was determined to fix that once and for all.  Basically I "hurt" my hip flexor 4/5 times over the entire 2009 year.  every time I would take more and more time off to let it heal and I would stretch, eat right etc so was confused as to what was wrong.  From sept to dec I had no issues with it and thought I was healed finally.  However mid December I wend snowboarding and just did a very simple fall while going like 1/2 mile an hour (think like you lose your balance and fall) - so its was something really light. But when I stood up i had that "oh ****" moment and felt the pain - it was faint but i knew it would grow worse. So I called it a day.  all I did was walk to the car (i was at the bottom of the run when it happened).  It killed the next few days...couldn't shift my car or step into the bathtub without wanting to scream.

This time I decided to go see a physical therapist.  I went there from middle/end of feb with relatively no results.  it would feel better sometimes but when he did intense stretches I would leave in worse pain than i arrived.  And when he said I should be healed and to go run, i couldn't do more than 2/3 minutes before I was back to square 1.

So In mid February I went to see my family doc - who happens to be a sports doctor/specializes in injuries.  Xray showed nothing so he sent me to get an MRI. Conclusion:  Chronic Tendinitis + Tear (yes both...) in my hip flexor.  He said the only option is rest. and said don't do anything for at least 6 more months.  He said I "might be able to swim" - I"ve been to the gym to swim a few times recently with mixed results (aka minor pain). so not sure if II should do that (but I need to do *something* active otherwise I'll continue to go insane. 10+ months total of nothing is...hard).  I have days where it just hurts. even if i'm just sitting still on a chair (sitting through movies = hard)

I"ve had surgery on my left foot to remove a bone that shouldn't exist. it was ripping through tendons in my foot and caused a lot of pain.  I have really bad feet as it is too.  I've got heriditary bad knees, I've cracked my left knee cap 2x - albeit not that badly.  I've also cracked my pelvic bone so these all might affect this injury too.

Sorry for the huge soap opera lol, i just want to be complete.

so - my questions. 1. Should I keep swimming / what can I do to keep myself in shape w/out making the healing process worse?  I work for a major outdoor company - its hard keeping me locked up.  2.  anything i can do to help the healing process to be more complete and maybe even faster?  3.  why does it "just hurt" sometimes- its not a searing pain but its a constant 'there' discomfort.  

Thanks for the any help/advice, etc!!
Gareth