So yeah. I totally fail at keeping up with what I say I'm gonna do... oops ^^ But what better time to start than now, right?
The main reason I'm writing this is because I plan on having surgery this christmas. I've always had a slight hip problem, namely feeling like it pops when I walk. Before I left the US, I was on a walk with some friends when one of them pointed out that I was walking funny. It was only then that I realized that yes, I WAS walking funny. And I had been walking funny for awhile. But I thought nothing of it. I actually figured it was due to hurting my news so many years ago. Turns out I was wrong.
Last October, I went on a hike with some coworkers. Everything was fine until we got back and I was resting. I realized that my right hip was really, really sore. And it didn't get better. Icing didn't help, resting didn't help, and I was going to just ignore it, but then I did a stupid (only I didn't know it was stupid at the time). I was a little late and the bus I had to catch beat me to the stop. I started running when I suddenly felt a "pop" in my hip. There was no pain, so I kept running, but the jerk of a bus driver waited until I was about 5 feet away form the door to leave. And when I stopped running was when the pain hit me. I was limping pretty bad after that. So I made an appointment at the hospital and went to see an orthopedist who specialized in hips.
Fast forward a week to when I found out that I had something called FAI, femoral acetabular impingement, specifically cam FAI. So what is FAI? FAI occurs when you have a bone deformity in your hip. With me, I have the cam type, which means the ball of my hip joint has too much bone so it doesn't fit quite right. Some people can go their whole life with something like this and not really have much pain. They'll have problems with they get older, but they don't always have a problem that will point a doctor in the right direction when they're younger. Actually, FAI is considered an active person's problem. Because you only find out by being active and hurting yourself, lol.
I was a little skeptical, so I spoke to my mom, who was also skeptical. Why? Because they doctor said right off the bat, after seeing my x-ray, that the best course of action was surgery. Woah. Wait. Hold the phone. Surgery right away? Without trying anything else first? Seemed to be just a way to get my money. But, I sent mom the x-ray and she got a second opinion. The SECOND the doctor saw the x-ray, he immediately announced what my problem was and asked when/ if I had scheduled my surgery.
And it was at that point that I decided to go ahead with the surgery. What sort of cons would I have for NOT getting surgery?
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I've been saving my money, and now have enough to cover most, if not all, of the surgery. My plan was to go see the surgeon and schedule things in October. Unfortunately, I did another bad thing. The doctor gave me a list of Do's and Don'ts last year. Since my hip had been giving me almost no trouble, I might have been ignoring the list. Why? Because it severely impaired what I could do! Some things on the don't list:
The main reason I'm writing this is because I plan on having surgery this christmas. I've always had a slight hip problem, namely feeling like it pops when I walk. Before I left the US, I was on a walk with some friends when one of them pointed out that I was walking funny. It was only then that I realized that yes, I WAS walking funny. And I had been walking funny for awhile. But I thought nothing of it. I actually figured it was due to hurting my news so many years ago. Turns out I was wrong.
Last October, I went on a hike with some coworkers. Everything was fine until we got back and I was resting. I realized that my right hip was really, really sore. And it didn't get better. Icing didn't help, resting didn't help, and I was going to just ignore it, but then I did a stupid (only I didn't know it was stupid at the time). I was a little late and the bus I had to catch beat me to the stop. I started running when I suddenly felt a "pop" in my hip. There was no pain, so I kept running, but the jerk of a bus driver waited until I was about 5 feet away form the door to leave. And when I stopped running was when the pain hit me. I was limping pretty bad after that. So I made an appointment at the hospital and went to see an orthopedist who specialized in hips.
Fast forward a week to when I found out that I had something called FAI, femoral acetabular impingement, specifically cam FAI. So what is FAI? FAI occurs when you have a bone deformity in your hip. With me, I have the cam type, which means the ball of my hip joint has too much bone so it doesn't fit quite right. Some people can go their whole life with something like this and not really have much pain. They'll have problems with they get older, but they don't always have a problem that will point a doctor in the right direction when they're younger. Actually, FAI is considered an active person's problem. Because you only find out by being active and hurting yourself, lol.
I was a little skeptical, so I spoke to my mom, who was also skeptical. Why? Because they doctor said right off the bat, after seeing my x-ray, that the best course of action was surgery. Woah. Wait. Hold the phone. Surgery right away? Without trying anything else first? Seemed to be just a way to get my money. But, I sent mom the x-ray and she got a second opinion. The SECOND the doctor saw the x-ray, he immediately announced what my problem was and asked when/ if I had scheduled my surgery.
And it was at that point that I decided to go ahead with the surgery. What sort of cons would I have for NOT getting surgery?
- Further injury to the hip and cartilage that might prolong recovery time in future
- Damaging the hip enough that I would need hip replacement in the future
- Damaging the cartilage enough that I would be in constant pain until surgery was performed
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I've been saving my money, and now have enough to cover most, if not all, of the surgery. My plan was to go see the surgeon and schedule things in October. Unfortunately, I did another bad thing. The doctor gave me a list of Do's and Don'ts last year. Since my hip had been giving me almost no trouble, I might have been ignoring the list. Why? Because it severely impaired what I could do! Some things on the don't list:
- Run
- Climb
- Hike
- Climb up many stairs
- Climb up a high incline
- Sit indian style
- Sit with my hip at less than a 90* angle
- Yoga
- Stretching that required me to have my hip at less than a 90* angle
- Sleep on my bad hip
- etc. etc.
... Turns out, what actually got me wasn't the sitting or the sleeping, or even hiking or running. No, it was going up too many stairs/ too steep of an incline, lol. When I tried to compensate by using my left hip, it caused the left hip to hurt as well. I woke up the morning after and had a hard time walking around, so, to keep the extra weight off of my left hip until my right hip was better, I bought a pair of crutches.
Within 2 days, I could walk with out a limp and the crutches went into the corner. However, now my problem is I have constant low grade pain in that right hip. And it isn't just generalized like it was last time. The pain is mostly generalized, but there is 1 hot spot that is constantly sore and is a bother when I lay down or roll over.
Which brings me to today. I went in to see the same doctor as I did before, and he said the hot spot concerned him and he wanted to do an MRA. I was okay with it, until I realized that we hadn't talked about the surgery. So after getting the translator to actually sit down with us instead of just coming in at the end, I was able to get all of my questions answered. He could do the MRA now, but since I cannot have surgery until the end of December, he said to hold off on the MRA, otherwise he might need to do a second one closer to the surgery date. He also said right now he is not scheduling any surgeries that far in advanced, but he was planning on allowing surgeries to be scheduled a few days before Christmas when the time came.
Thus came about the results of today: He gave me pain medicine to help for about 10 days, at which point he hopes the pain will have gone away almost completely. I have an appointment with him on November 28th at 10am so he can see how my pain has fared and order the MRA. Once the MRA has been performed, hopefully the week after that, we will schedule the surgery.
Recovery from this surgery is actually a little difficult, mainly because of how long the recovery period is. I'll be on crutches for anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks. I'll have to be in physical therapy for about 4 months, give or take some time, but the expectation is to be 100% 6 months after surgery. And not only 100%, but able to run, climb, and do yoga again, which I haven't been able to do in almost a year.
And... yeah! There you have it! Hope this cleared up any questions people had about why I'm getting surgery ^^
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| Yay crutches!! We're gonna be SUCH good friends ^^ |
Within 2 days, I could walk with out a limp and the crutches went into the corner. However, now my problem is I have constant low grade pain in that right hip. And it isn't just generalized like it was last time. The pain is mostly generalized, but there is 1 hot spot that is constantly sore and is a bother when I lay down or roll over.
Which brings me to today. I went in to see the same doctor as I did before, and he said the hot spot concerned him and he wanted to do an MRA. I was okay with it, until I realized that we hadn't talked about the surgery. So after getting the translator to actually sit down with us instead of just coming in at the end, I was able to get all of my questions answered. He could do the MRA now, but since I cannot have surgery until the end of December, he said to hold off on the MRA, otherwise he might need to do a second one closer to the surgery date. He also said right now he is not scheduling any surgeries that far in advanced, but he was planning on allowing surgeries to be scheduled a few days before Christmas when the time came.
Thus came about the results of today: He gave me pain medicine to help for about 10 days, at which point he hopes the pain will have gone away almost completely. I have an appointment with him on November 28th at 10am so he can see how my pain has fared and order the MRA. Once the MRA has been performed, hopefully the week after that, we will schedule the surgery.
Recovery from this surgery is actually a little difficult, mainly because of how long the recovery period is. I'll be on crutches for anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks. I'll have to be in physical therapy for about 4 months, give or take some time, but the expectation is to be 100% 6 months after surgery. And not only 100%, but able to run, climb, and do yoga again, which I haven't been able to do in almost a year.
And... yeah! There you have it! Hope this cleared up any questions people had about why I'm getting surgery ^^
Sending lots of good thoughts your way friend, hope all goes smoothly! Thanks for the update, keep us posted!
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