Hi everyone.
I'm on a waiting list for bilateral resurfacing, hopefully sometime in the next month.
I'd been struggling with left hip and left low back pain/sacral area pain for some time. I've been unable to stretch for years and have been a frustrating patient for physical therapists who look at me and say "I can fix him" then realize that the hamstring stretches, psoas stretches and most else they assign just aggravate me.
The diagnosis initially was a back problem, although it doesn't look too bad per x-rays and MRI, not bad enough to merit my symptoms I was having. I wasn't comfortable with the diagnosis and got a 2nd opinion due to the intense groin pain I'd been having. A 3T mri showed FAI, an impingement syndrome, labral tears possibly as a result and psoas tendonitis. I elected to undergo arthroscopic surgery to address the impingement (grind down the bone to the out-of-round section of the femur head and fix the cartilage that had been damaged) and to "release" the tendon.
The rehab was long and frustrating but eventually I got better, not 100% by any means, and returned to work at 5 months post op, hoping that I would continue to improve. In the process of rehabbing the left hip I started to have similar groin pain and sacral discomfort to the right hip, especially following the squats I'd been doing. I got an xray and mri and the result was again FAI with a labral tear. No mention of the psoas tendonitis this time.
I continued to work, albeit a struggle until about the 9 month post surgery mark where my left hip started to get increasingly uncomfortable. I started limping and became unable to climb stairs leading with the left leg. I went back to the doctor who performed the surgery. He asked me if I'd been doing enough rehab and activity. I showed him pictures of me skiing with my 4 year old son over the winter and explained, among other things I'd been doing, the prolonged snowplow position I'd been able to do controlling him down the hill at our favorite ski resort during the good months of my rehab. He agreed the pain probably wasn't due to inactivity.
He offered to do a resurfacing, something that he's done 10 times in his career. I respectfully declined after reading the information here on the hippy site and consulted with a reputable local hip resurfacing surgeon.
A couple things make me nervous about the procedure due to the fact that I'm not a typical resurfacing candidate: 1) I don't have considerable arthritis to my hips or loss of cartilage. 2) my work comp doctor says he thinks I'm heading down the wrong path - he also never suspected my hip as a source of pain in the process and was comfortable with the back diagnosis. He doesn't give a lot of credibility to FAI and or labral tears being pain sources. Also thinks the potential problems of hip resurfacing outweigh the benefits. His suggestion? Limp my way to retirement age ... 10 more years at earliest and try to get by. The thought is depressing. 3) I'm 40 years old and the doctor that will be performing the bilateral surgery was hesitant due to my age.
Thanks for reading my tale. I really look forward to being able to ride a bike again, to kick my legs when I swim freestyle, paddle a surfboard and ski with my little man again.
Topic: bilateral surgery coming up (Read 3991 times)
Recent Posts
