Hello fellow hippies - long time lurker, and first time contributor.
As of today, I’m officially 5 weeks out from getting my left HR from Dr. Gross in South Carolina. I’m a 33 yo athletic male who was in complete denial, anger, depression about having to do this surgery. I was a high school and college athlete who was in the gym 5 days a week and playing basketball 3 nights a week. I was born with “tight hips” according to my football coach, and started feeling discomfort in 2015 which I associated with a muscle strain. That progressed to a limp/lack of ROM and pain. My MRI in 2017 showed CAM impingement on both hips, and bone on bone in the left. I had an FAI surgery in October 2017 with the expectation that I had found the “fix”! Even though my surgeon had recommended a THR, and was skeptical that this would momentarily work at best. After that surgery, I dedicated myself to PT, soft tissue massage, Pilates, and acupuncture - all in an effort to get me back on the basketball court, and back into the gym the way I used to train. Even with continued pain, lack of ROM, and discomfort - I was convinced it was a soft tissue concern and not the bone on bone reality I was enduring.
The doubt and denial of next steps these past 9 months has been excruciating. I would have “good days” where I felt I was turning the corner, and bad days which we all can relate to. I’ve never had constant pain from walking distance, which I qualified as something to justify the surgery. Instead, I compromised on every activity I enjoyed - which should be the REAL reason to go ahead with something like this.
So, this is my first post to let this group know how thankful I am for your contributions. Without this site, I would not have even learned about HR and would be having a THR here in Los Angeles under the advisement of my original surgeon. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared, but am consciously trying to lean into the “hope’”. There are so many activities I want to get back to, and after the failed FAI I have been compromising on quality of life. I believe that this is a way to get back to living the life I’m missing.
I will try and give back to this community by sharing my experience. Hopefully, it will help someone else the way your stories have helped me.
I did want to ask the community if there are any supplements/vitamins, or foods that have helped with inflamation and bone regeneration? Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere.
David.