Coming off Crutches

So I have been hesitant to write an update these past few weeks because coming off crutches for me has been extremely difficult.  I have never had such issues getting off crutches with all of my scopes, but I have to keep reminding myself that this surgery is nothing like a scope surgery.  I have yet to be able to see my surgeon for a follow up because of life events as well as the weather (norther Michigan in the winter, not fun).  But hopefully in April that will happen.  I thought that my strength would easily come back to my hip within a week or so of walking with just one crutch, but it has taken about 3 weeks of walking with one crutch to finally get to a point where I can walk without any aid around the house.  Outside of the house I am still using one crutch though.  It does not help that with spring on its way, everything outside is a sheet of ice.  I cannot wait for summer though.  Swimming and walking I think will help improve my overall demeanor and spirits.

I am still participating in PT, although I am only doing about 2 times a week.  Its been very helpful though in making me feel like I can start doing things.  I was able to pick up our apartment and do some household chores that I had not previously been able to, so there is definitely improvement in my everyday life.  I still am struggling with pain and limited ROM though.  I get intense pain very deep in my glutes as well as my knee, which constantly feels swollen and stiff with acute pain that wakes me up most nights.  I also have intense hip flexor pain and still cannot lift my leg up without intense pain in the front of my hip.  The combination of these things has been very frustrating for me and I feel like its holding be back from a 'normal' recovery.  I still have the lingering issue of my femoral anteversion which I think is playing a large part in my knee pain and hip flexor pain.  I expect at my next appointment for Dr. Buly to talk about femoral osteotomy surgery, which is a big bummer considering this was suppose to be the end of the right hip surgeries.  But I also knew that this was a possibility, so I just have to keep moving forward.

The nice part about moving back "home" to be with family is that my husband and I have a lot of support to help me get to and from PT, doctor appointments and also help provide me with some entertainment at times.  On Friday I got to attend a talent show that my younger sisters school was hosting and tomorrow is my Grandpa's birthday so we are all getting together for dinner.  I don't think that I could have done this surgery without having moved back home, as hard as it was, I am very thankful for all of the help and support that me and my husband have here.

So I guess overall, not much of an update.  Things keep plugging along.  It seems that within the next week or so I should be able to get off crutches completely, which its certainly about time, seeing as this week I am 4 and a half months post op!!  I thought that at this point I would be much further along in my recovery, but all I can do is take things one day at a time and hope that spring is right around the corner :)

6 Weeks post op PAO

Hey Everyone, so this past Thursday I was 6 weeks post op.  It seems crazy that its been that long, but here was are!  Excuse me if this post is cynical, after 4 right hip surgeries and 6 weeks on crutches. my ability to stay positive all the time is waning a bit.  So, not much has changed in the past 2 weeks, I still have a good amount of pain, still taking pain meds regularly.  I got to stop taking my asprin for blood clots though, so thats good, one less thing to take.  I had an unplanned hiatus from PT because of the holidays and one day I was not feeling well, so it was about 2 weeks between appointments.  On Friday though I had a reevaluation and it made me realize that there are some things that have gotten a lot better since surgery.  On Tuesday I get to start in the pool. which I am super excited about!  I think that it will really help me with my confidence about getting off crutches.  I am not suppose to get off crutches until I am cleared by x-ray, which should happen later this week.  I am nervous about it though cause most of the time my leg does not feel ready to take on more weight as of yet, so I guess we will see what the xray says.  This is all so different than my scopes, but because bones were broken this time, obviously we have to make sure they are healed before adding weight.  It seems like by 12 weeks most people are off crutches so I am about halfway there!!  As much as I want to just be done with the crutches,. I know that my hip is just not ready yet.  I have been able to lay on my operated side again, which feels soooo good.  I am a side sleeper so this has made my nights much more bearable.

My left hip has been acting up more and more though which is frustrating.  I know that eventually I will need surgery to fix the impingement and labral tear, but its so hard to imagine needing more surgery at this point.  My other fear though it that this PAO has opened up the proverbial 'can of worms' regarding my malalignment issues and that eventually I will need a femoral osteotomy and a possible tibial osteotomy before things will be correct.  But at the same time, worrying about these things will do no good, so I just keep trying to concentrate on whats in front of me.  I hope that this PAO at least gives me the opportunity to start working again.  I miss it greatly.

So later this week I will know a little more about my weight bearing status.  On the personal front, my husband and I have moved into our new apartment in our home town (about 8 hours from where we were living).  I am enjoying having a smaller space to get around and clean!  We went from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment!  As much as I loved our house up north, trying to clean and do housework in such a large place was just awful on my hips.  Its odd how these hips have effected so much of my life.  I am enjoying being close to my family though (yet not living with them haha).

4 weeks post op RPAO!

Well, today is 4 weeks post op.  I kind of thought that at this point I would be further along in my healing process I guess.  Compared to my scope around this point in time, I am still getting a lot of pain, which is frustrating.  I have pain when standing and walking almost all of the time.  Usually in my hip flexors, groin and deep in my glutes.  I still have at least another 2 weeks on crutches at 20% weight bearing and then most likely I can work on weaning off of them.  I have been doing PT 2-3 times a week and thats been going well.  I can definitely see progress, its just all a lot slower than I anticipated.

And of course, because my life is not interesting enough with surgery, finally there has been movement on the adoption of the 3 foster kids my parents have.  The adoption petition was filed last week and is set for finalization in Feb.  Our family is beyond elated and we could not have asked for a better Christmas present!  As well, my husband and I are moving back to our home town.  So in the next few week and months we have a lot of personal things happening which are exciting, not to mention the prospect of getting of crutches soon!!

The day before surgery with Dr. Buly at the Hospital for Special Surgery

Hello Everyone!!

So tomorrow is the day, I will go under the knife for my first PAO and my 4th right hip surgery.  I am still in shock with how I got here, it all kind of seems like a bad dream, but in the end I hope that my long hip ordeal can provide a learning experience for anyone else suffering with hip pain.

Yesterday I had my pre-op appointments which were no big deal.  Basically they went over all the usual stuff with me (height, weight, blood pressure, etc.) and then I had to get some blood drawn.  I was worried that my surgery might be cancelled again due to high CRP and Sed. rates but the pre-op doctor that I saw said that my numbers from the end of Oct. were no big deal and he was not concerned so that made me feel better.  The only think different this time from my other pre-op's was that they did an EKG which I thought was pretty neat.  I guess it did not show anything bad cause I got my surgery time.....8:30 tomorrow morning (Thursday, Nov. 21st) and I have to be to the hospital at 5:30 am!  I am glad that its early though cause otherwise I would be up all morning just worrying about surgery.

Today my husband and my mom and I, we went on a boat tour of the statue of Liberty and lower Manhatten.  It was really amazing to see all these sights!  Its stunning the amount of people and the history that is here!  We had a great time, but its about 2 in the afternoon and my hip is pretty much done with sight seeing and ready for a rest.

So, thats the story so far.  New York is amazing and so far our trip has been great!  I hope surgery tomorrow follows that trend as well.  I will update my blog as soon as I get a chance after surgery.  Until then, safe hip travels everyone!

When life gives you lemons...

So these last few weeks have been really difficult.  It was such a shock hearing that a need the ultimate hip surgery to fix the real problem with my hips.  I feel betrayed by the medical community and frustrated with the surgeons I had seen.  For so long I was told that nothing was wrong.  For example, the first surgeon that I saw in Marshfield, WI after I got my diagnosis told me that since I had good range of motion still that I did not have FAI and that if I continued to have pain that I should go back to my general practitioner.  Well of course I was going to continue to have pain, I had already been in pain for 5 years!  The blatant dismissal without any further investigation was heart breaking for me at the time.  I did not give up on my hip though and pursued a second opinion with the surgeon who would eventually do my first scope.

Looking back at all the surgeons I saw, all the PT that I did, and all the general practitioners that I went through, all the while hoping that maybe, just maybe, this surgeon or doctor or PT would make it all better, once and for all.  Because of the lack luster care from the medical community, my distrust in doctors has gown exponentially.  I always want second (or third, or fourth) opinions about things.  I do a ton of research about everything now before I trust anything a doctor says to me, which really goes against everything I was taught growing up.  I was taught that the doctor knew how to fix you when you were sick and that was the end of it.  There was no questioning him/her, it just was.  Which is why I think that this was all so hard from the beginning.  To question that a surgeon could be wrong was just not something that I had heard of, but it is now something that is second nature to me.  Which, when you think about it, is a great thing.  Critical thinking should always be used in all things, but to have to question someone who is suppose to make you feel better, who is suppose to be on your side, seems maddening.  Add to that the hundreds of dollars you get the privileged to pay for their 'opinion' and I sometimes feel insane!  If I wanted to discuss opinions then I would just have a heated conversation with certain family members and that's free.  But to pay for the privileged of someone to tell you that your wrong about your pain and discomfort seems barbaric in our modern society.  But I shall digress from this conversation seeing as I could go on forever about the American medical system and the insanity of it all.

What I really wanted to write about tonight (or early this morning) was how much I have learned and how I want to share what I have learned with everyone!  I never want someone to suffer like I have.  I never want someone to think that they are crazy because some untrained doctor or radiologist cannot find the correct diagnosis for their pain.  In the past week I have been sharing my story high and low, in all corners of the internet trying to get the word out about FAI, labral tears, femoral anteversion, etc.  I see posts on Reddit about groin pain and how they are told is a hernia or a strained muscle and I can only shake my head because I know that at least 10 of those 20 posts I saw are going to be misdiagnosed and most likely have either FAI or labral tears but they will suffer in pain until someone somewhere down the line makes a correct diagnosis.

What happened to me should have never of happened.  Doctors, PT, nurses, etc all have a duty to patients to not give up on them until finding out the true reasons for someones pain.  For $500 for an initial consultation with a surgeon, patients deserve more than 'I do not know, see someone else' and pass the buck onto a different doctor.  Its maddening!  And its awful that its allowed.  Everyday people are passed off and shoved away when answers are not easy to find.  Is that was med. school is teaching students, how to pass the buck without follow up?!  I find this unacceptable.

But, given my situation I want to make the proverbial lemonade out of lemons.  I want to share my story in as many places as possible, with as many people as possible to get the word out about FAI, labral tears and how finding a well educated and trained surgeon is the single most important thing you can do for your care.  It does not seem like a big deal when you are looking at your first scope because if your are anything like me, you'll think 'I am not special, I do not need a "top" surgeon to fix me, I just need someone who is a surgeon', but I beg of you, please do not fall into this trap.  While I did not have any glaringly obvious done deformities, like dysplasia, I have a ton of rotational issues, none of which were found by my first two surgeons because a rotational study was not done.  Imagine how much pain and money and heartache would have been saved for me if my first surgeon had the training and forethought to order a rotational MRI or a CT scan?  I even had family members encouraging me to see the hometown surgeon because "You don't need the best, you just need someone who can get the job done".  Oh how wrong they were.  I think that hip surgery is often mistaken for knee surgery, especially scopes, in the sense that its easy, its done routinely, and often has very little complications.  But the hip is a very DEEP and hard to reach joint, something that the knee is not.  Thus access is tricky and limited.

So to wrap up this late night rant, PLEASE go to the best surgeon you can afford.  Find a surgeon who has trained at top hospitals like the Hospital for Special Surgery, or who has done a fellowship with top scope surgeons like Dr. Philippon, Dr. Kelly, and Dr. Byrd.  ALWAYS ask for a rotational study to be done either through an MRI or a CT scan (this is more accurate).  Then get a second opinion and a third opinion.  Many surgeons like Philippon and Kelly do free film reviews, take advantage of this!  Send in your films.  And last, but not least, please educate yourself on these things.  Know what would make you a good scope candidate and what would not, know what your angles are (alpha angle, CE angle, version angles are all important) and if your surgeon does not know, run for the hills, run as far away from that surgeon as possible!

So I will leave you all with that note.  I will be spending a lot of time on the internet these next few weeks, trying to spread my story far and wide so that I can hopefully help just one person avoid the heartache and pain that I have endured due to the medical communities error.  If your reading this, please share with anyone you might know suffering from hip/knee/lower back pain.  You may just save their sanity!  Thanks for reading!

If its not one thing, its another!

Today is 11 weeks post op!  I am in shock how fast the time has gone.  Physical therapy is still going well even though I have not been able to attend as much as I would like.  Recently my stomach pains have become the real issue, preventing me from going to physical therapy as much as I should.  Last week I was only able to attend one day.  But during that one session we really pushed the hip hard.  I did lounges on the treadmill for 2 whole minutes!  I thought that I was going to die!  I am doing 3 sets of 10 of lounges on the ground with 2lb weights as well as side leg lifts and back leg lifts.  Its crazy how much I can do and the progress that I can feel.  But I can also still feel a lot of weakness.  My pain has been minimal for the past 3 weeks, which is really promising considering I cannot take any NSAID's.  I still have numbness along the outside of my thigh and under my knee cap.  My scars seem to be healing up well, but I can feel a lot of scar tissue underneath my outer most scar.  I have been using Vit. E oil on them and massage to break it up.

My stomach on the other hand seems to have a mind of its own.  I have been taking Prilosec now for 2 weeks at the increased does yet on Thursday I had horrible stomach pains again.  Is a combination of nausea and actual physical pain.  I am not sure if anything sets it off in particular but it usually starts in the evening after having dinner.  I have tried taking Pepto and Tums but both of those usually just make things worse.  I was in pain for about 6 hours until some pain medication I took finally kicked in.  Friday was not much better, although I was able to sleep a little more.  I had a low grade fever all day which had me worried.  I called my doctor but he was out of town and the fill in doctor only suggested that if the pain got worse I got to the walk-in or ER.  Well Friday night the pain got worse so I went to the ER.  They were not able to do much for me, they basically just suggested that I call my primary care doctor about setting up an appointment for a scope of my stomach.  They were able to prescribe some antibiotics in case it is an infection, plus some pain pills to take when the pain gets really bad.  So for the past few days I have just eaten toast and drank water because of the nausea.

So overall, the hip is feeling really good, minus some aches and pain here and there but this stomach thing has really put a damper on my progress.  On Wed. I have a follow up appointment with my doctor regarding the stomach issues so hopefully then we can come up with a game plan for the next step.

10 weeks - Hope

On Monday I will be 10 weeks post op.  Its really hard to believe considering originally I was not suppose to even have surgery until this month (April).  The past two weeks have been amazing!  My hip feels so good, I don't even have words to express how excited I am.  This week I walked my dog, about 1/4 of a mile, 4 times, as well as climbing some snow banks out at Lake Superior to watch the stars.  The snow was giving out underneath my leg as I was walking and I had no pain!  Plus the physical therapy that I have been doing has stepped up intensity each time we are adding strengthening exercises without any pain!  I have not had this happen in years.  This week we even added wall squats!  Full wall squats!  Its crazy how wonderful it feels.  I feel like I actually have hope for the future, something that I have not felt in a long time.

I am so grateful to Dr. Philippon.  I really believe that he is the best surgeon in the world to do these kinds of things.  Without him and his team, I know that I would still be feeling helpless and frustrated.  I read stories of other people struggling with the same things I was (continued pain, frustration, etc.) and I just want to recommend to everyone to see Dr. P.  After years of struggling with this and seeing many different doctors, the best advice I give everyone I talk to is to get a lot of opinions from at least one local doctor (if available) and an opinion form one of the top doctors (of course its my personal opinion that Dr. P is the best).  Checking out who your doctor trained with is another really important thing.  Before I had a first hip surgery failure I thought that I would not be one of those who had to have multiple surgeries, that those things happened to other people, but this whole experience has been very humbling and taught me a lot about hips. There are a lot of underlying factors that go into whether someone is a good candidate for a scope surgery and many untrained doctors do not know how to look for these things.  Looking back on my experience, I wish no one would ever have surgery with a surgeon who has not trained under the best doctors in the world as it seems their success rates are much, much less and people suffer needlessly.

So this week the only downside that I have been experiencing is that my left hip has really started to increase in pain.  Its bothered me on and off ever since after my first surgery in 2010 but was brushed off by the surgeon as compensation pain.  With my second MRA I was diagnosed with a CAM impingement on the left, but I was hoping that once the right was fixed that it would become asymptomatic again.  So far, no luck with that, but I really don't want to think about the possibility of needing another surgery, so unless it really starts effecting my every day activity, I most likely will not pursue anything with it.

Thats the deal this week :)  Feeling really great about life and the hip situation.  I feel like my fears of needing the surgery to fix my anteversion are reduced daily and that this might be the end of the road for the hip pain in the right.  Thanks for reading!

9 weeks!

So today is 9 weeks post op!  Its crazy to think about how far out from surgery I am now.  This past week I have been feeling better and better each day.  My pain has been minimal and my range of motion is better as well.  On Saturday I walked my dog with no problems and no pain (other than I slipped and fell in my driveway, luckily nothing serious!).  I am very excited about all this!  But of course when one thing is going well, something else falls apart.  I have been experiencing intense stomach pains for a few months now and on Saturday night my stomach started giving me intense stomach pains.  It was horrible.  Nothing was taking the pain away.  So today I made an appointment with my primary care physician to see if he could help me figure out what the problem was.  I had a feeling that it was an ulcer because of my high use of NSAID's for the past few years.  So today I went to see my doctor and the end result is that tomorrow at 8 am I have an appointment at the hospital for an ultrasound of my stomach area as well as blood work.  The doctor is concerned that I may have a gallstone as when he did the physical exam on me, I was really tender more toward my gallbladder than anything else.  So, worst case scenario  I need my gallbladder removed, best case scenario, I have an ulcer and will be taking lots of Prilosec!  I have had to stop all NSAID's though, which in the past few days has made my hip ache a little more and give me bad headaches.

Physical therapy has really picked thing up a lot this past week.  I started doing the elliptical, which has felt good as well as adding some 2 lb weights to some of the exercises that I had been doing that have gotten pretty easy for me.  It feels good to start strengthening things and see some progress and things get easier and easier with each physical therapy appointment.  The best part is the pain afterwards has been minimal (except in the past few days, when I have had to stop taking NSAID's).

Hope everyone else is doing well and pain free :)

EDIT (3/28/13):  So I wanted to edit this to update the results of my ultrasound and blood work.  Everything came back normal so the likely culprit of my intense stomach pains is an ulcer.  I am on Prilosec, 40 mg's for 2 weeks and then I go back to the doctor to reevaluate to see if its working.  Its really early in the morning here but I cannot sleep because of my stomach pains so I hope that this regimen of Prilosec works fast!  Most likely the ulcer is from my NSAID use all these years in dealing with the hip problems.  I was taking about 600 mg every 4-6 hours for about 2 years straight so its no wonder I developed an ulcer.  I would recommend talking to your primary care physician if you have been or will be on NSAID's for any long length of time and see if you can get one a Prilosec as preventative measures for ulcers.

8 weeks today

Sorry its been a while since I have updated my recovery.  Last week my husband and I had to go back to our home town for a week for some family things.  I was suppose to have my 6-8 week follow up with Dr. Philippon but had to cancel to be able to go home this week.  Currently my appointment got rescheduled for April 21st.  Today its 8 weeks out from surgery and I wish I could report that things are going really well, but I can't.  My hip has been really painful and sore for the last 2 weeks.  I am having increased groin pain, pinching in the front of my hip when bending, and the infamous deep ache that is relentless.  I am having a hard time walking up stairs, doing stretches that had not been a problem, and in general, a feeling of instability.  I keep getting a feeling like my femur is slipping in the socket and all my muscles and tendons are sliding around and snapping when it does this.  Its happened a few times and each time its really painful.  I am afraid to walk far as I feel like I my leg will give way.

All of these things have me really concerned but I am trying to keep a positive outlook and not assume the worst, but thats becoming harder and harder to do with each surgery that fails.  I am assuming that part of my pain is from sleeping on a pull out couch and over doing it last week while at home, plus not having any PT, but part of me keeps thinking, its 8 weeks out and I cannot go a week without PT?  My mind keeps screaming that its the femoral anteversion causing these problems, but I don't know for sure and I am trying really hard not to assume the worst.  I have PT today for the first time in a week so I will let them know of these problems and see what they say.  This is becoming harder and harder to accept that things may never be right and I will always be in pain, but I am hoping thats not the case.

Well, I wish I had a better, more optimistic outlook for this post, but maybe that will be next time.

Edit 3/20/13:  So I just wanted to edit this post quickly because I called Dr. P's physicians assistant yesterday about the pain I have been having.  He recommended that I change up the physical therapy protocol to focus more on the outer hip muscles and glutes.  He said that once your off crutches, the muscles in the front of the hip are baring the brunt of the weight load and don't really need the focus of strengthening this far out from surgery.  So I am going to start using the elliptical before PT for 10 minutes instead of the bike, focus on strengthening the side and back of the hip muscles (which I started on Monday as my PT is great and on top of this stuff), and I am going to start trying to make it to the pool 5 times a week.  Getting to the pool that often will probably be difficult, but I love to swim!  So as soon as the weather cooperates (we are getting a snow storm at the moment) I will be heading to the pool much more often.

I had a rough night sleeping last night, but mostly because of pain in my left hip.  Its becoming more and more concerning, but I really hope that with time and strengthening it will settle down.  I am also going to look into some ART massage therapy to see if it can help break up some of the scar tissue that I have.  More updates to come!

5 weeks post op

So today I am 5 weeks post op.  Last week was really hard, I was having increasing pain with each day that passed and I was trying to work myself off of crutches.  I felt like I was falling behind in my rehab as even the basic PT exercises were becoming more difficult instead of easier.  BUT...on Friday, I woke up and felt a ton better, I was able to do my therapy exercises in the morning without any trouble at all.  I was so happy and surprised!  It finally felt amazing!  So for the past few days I have been continually feeling better and better, doing my therapy exercises 2 times a day without any issues.  Yesterday and today I walked without crutches at all, all day.  My back today is sore though as I am twisting my pelvis as I have a slight limp, so I am working a lot harder at stabilizing my pelvis with my core, which means I really have to think about every step I take, but it will be worth it as my leg needs this to get stronger.  I also went to the pool today for the first time.  It felt good, albeit different.  I didn't realize how much and quickly I adapted to the feeling of walking in the water without so much weight on my hips until I got out of the pool and the limp was back.  So I think I am going to try and get to the pool on the days that I am not in PT.

In PT I have been working on a few new things, like external rotation, which feels weird as my capsule is really tight, but each day, my range of motion gets better and better and its always nice to see results!  I have started doing abduction exercises with my left leg, which means I have to stand on my right (operated leg) to start some more strengthening.  I was really afraid to do these exercises but they turned out ok, as I did not fall over!  We have also upped the resistance on the bike, so I feel like I am getting a slight cardio workout, which is something new.  In the pool I can start doing some aqua jogging and laps, as well as the normal exercises which just use the resistance of the water to help strengthen.

My pain has been minimal the past 3 days or so, after I got over the awful flare up that I had.  I am already on less drugs than I was before, which is promising!  I am suppose to have a follow up appointment with Dr. Philippon on March 11th, but I have some family issues that need attending too so I will be cancelling this appointment and rescheduling.  I also want to push it out a little so that I can try and fly out there myself and save some money on plane tickets as its starting to get a little too pricey flying out there every 6 weeks!  So, thats about all for now.  This week in PT we will be adding some new exercises, so we will see how the hip does without crutches and some more strengthening!  Each week brings something new, its exciting to see the changes happening!!

Stay pain free and have a great week everyone!!

An Introduction

So, I have tried blogging some before with little success.  I always seem to loose my momentum, not have enough information to post, or get lost in my own thoughts and forget the direction that I want to go in, but finally I think that I can do this.  My reasons for wanting to blog have changed over the years.  Originally I thought that it would be a good way to keep family members up to date on what me and my husband were doing in life after we got married, but with Facebook and email, that does not seem to be a problem!  One theme though that seems to follow me around the past few years, among other things, is hip problems.

To start out, I am 27 years old.  I currently live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  It is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been and I feel lucky that I get to live and work in such an amazing place.  Me and my husband have been married for 4 years and attend school at Michigan Technological University. I also work part time for an attorney in town as a legal assistant.  I LOVE my job.  So to give a little background on my hip story, I rode horses for years when I was in junior high and high school.  It was my hobby, my sport, my life for years.  But, as it always seems, good things must come to an end at some point, so did my riding and showing horses.

It was a cold winter day, Christmas Eve day to be exact, and I was at the barn, riding a horse that I was leasing to show in the up coming year.  As it seems to go, when you are least concerned about falling off a horse, you fall off, and so I did.  While cantering by a door, my horse spooked and bucked and off I came, landing on my right hip.  I tried to get up, feeling stupid that I feel off while doing nothing intense, I could not stand.  I stayed on the ground on my hands and knees, unable to move because of the hip pain.  Luckily my mom was there and got me into the car and took me to the emergency room.  X-Rays were taken, but showed nothing, yet I was still unable to walk.  I was given crutches and sent home, telling me to walk when I feel like I can.  So a few days later I was able to walk again.  But this was the beginning, where it all started (I think).

Paleramo, the horse who started it all:

For years after I would struggle on and off with hip pain.  It would never be constant, but while riding and running I would start getting intense pain.  Finally, in the fall of 2009, my husband convinced me that I should go to the doctor.  I was hesitant as I had been to the doctor before for the pain and was told there was nothing they could do, they did not know why I was in pain.  But I went and x-rays showed FAI (Femoral-Acetabular Impingement).  I had never heard of this, but it is basically where there is extra bone growth on the femur head and/or the acetabulum causing it to impinge and create pain.  As well as the pain, this often causes labral tears, which will also cause pain.  I was getting more and more pain daily at this point, I was having a hard time sitting at work for 8 hours, a hard time running for more than 3 miles, and riding my horse.      I saw a specialist who told me he did not see FAI on my x-rays and after spending 5 minutes examining me, told me that I did not have FAI and that if I continued to have pain I should go back and see my GP and that it might be my SI joint.  I left feeling defeated, mad, and upset.  I thought that I would finally have answers and all it left me with was more questions.  So I went back to my GP where he ordered an MRI, which showed possible (likely) tears of the labrum.

After this I decided to see an orthopedic surgeon in my home town of Traverse City, MI.  He thought that it was possible I had a tear as well as FAI.  So in May of 2010 I had surgery where a large tear was repaired. Recovery for the most part was easy.  Crutches for 4 weeks.  For a year and a half this surgery seemed to fix everything.  While I had some pain on and off, it was never too painful to prevent me from doing anything.

Around the spring/summer of 2011 I started having much more intense pain.  I was having a hard time even sitting at work again, I was unable to walk long distances, or exercising.  In November and December it got a lot worse, to the point that I was having a hard time even walking.  I was now taking pain killers all day and night to get through work and sleep.  The beginning of January 2012 I got a second opinion for a surgeon in Kalamazoo.  I had more x-rays and an MRA done about a week later.  They results were bad.  I had at least 3 more labral tears, as well as a cam impingement and possible pincer impingement.  Needless to say I was devastated that I needed more surgery, but hopeful that this would be the end of the pain.  Below are MRA images showing the tears.

 So on Feb. 8th, 2012 I had my second arthroscopic surgery to remove the labrum and shave down the bone that was causing the impingements.  The surgery went well it seemed like although the surgeon took out 40% of my labrum as it was shredded to the point that it was unable to be repaired.  As well, the sutures from the first surgery were floating around in my joint, so that was removed.

Its been almost 9 months since surgery though and I am still in daily pain.  Although not quiet as bad as last time, its to the point that I am unable to sit comfortablely at work and school, I cannot walk more than I mile again, and all the same symptoms are back.  So again, I went for ANOTHER opinion of a different surgeon. This time I sent my stuff to Dr. Marc Philippon in Vail, CO, a world renowned hip surgeon.  He believes that I still have an impingement and he also wants to use part of my IT band to create a new labrum in my hip.  So I have another surgery scheduled for April 2013.

So this first post has been really long winded, but I wanted to give people an idea of what I have been through in the past few years, and where I am headed.  I want this blog to be a place where I can express my frustrations, triumphs, and disappointments as I try to live with, at times, debilitating hip pain, all while trying to live a normal life of school and work.  Thanks for following me on my journey!