Living an EXTRAordinary Life

I’ve been experiencing hip pain for about three years now.   It first became apparent during training for the Gasparilla Tampa Bay marathon, which was held in February of 2007.  But I would just rest and then be able to run.  Only a few times has it affected my ability to run regularly.  The first being when we did the San Diego Marathon in June of that same year.    It bothered me while training for the Pittsburgh marathon in 2009, but I still was able to run that race and some half marathons.  But during training, I had many days of having to walk it out and not run at all.

I FINALLY broke down and saw a doctor.  A sports medicine orthopedist.   That day, she did some strength tests on me and I had an x-ray that showed nothing except some arthritis.  Because of that, I needed to get an MRI, which I scheduled for November 11.   Long story short, the Monday before we were to go to Vegas, I heard from my doctor who gave me the verdict that I had a hip impingement, which was irregularly shaped bones.  She said a lot of stuff that I quite honestly didn’t catch, but caught the important stuff.  Start PT, there is a surgery that is an option that is essentially shaving bone, no running and see her in about six weeks.

Ack!  What????  I did indeed call for PT that very day and scheduled my first session for the day before we left for Vegas, where we were doing half marathons, Matt running, me walking.   Of course, I did a lot of research, made myself ill.  I found a blog of someone who went through this and is doing well on the surgery.  I joined a yahoo! support group for people with this condition … FAI (femoracetabular impingement).    What I learned is that there are two main kinds of FAI … one where the femur bone has a bony protrustion or some mis-shape, which is called CAM and the other is the acetabulum, called PINCHER and some people can have two.  There seem to be mixed results on the surgery, but most people ended up going for the surgery because they could not control the pain.  They couldn’t run, go to yoga, bike, nothing.  But after surgery, supposedly one can return to these activities if the surgery is successful.

Do I even need to say I was scared? And running?  I had all the emotions.  I was sad that I might not be able to run again.  Then relieved.   Somewhere in there, I became alright with it.  Then I wasn’t.  Then I thought if I could just run a little.  It didn’t have to be training all the time.  A 5K or a 10K would be great.  Just back and forth and back and forth between the emotions.  Finally decided that I wouldn’t use running as a reason for getting the surgery.  That would have to be a benefit.   I was quite honestly more upset about the fact that all of the FAI sites said no yoga.  I haven’t been to yoga in a very long time and I need yoga for much more than “stretching”.   Yoga is more important to me than running.

I’ve been faithfully going to PT twice a week (except for the two times this stupid cold has kept me at home) and doing my at-home exercises.  My therapist, Valerie, is very nice and smart.  She told me that as soon as I feel up to it, I can exercise and do anything except run, jump or strengthen the legs, as the PT is doing that for me.  That includes yoga “as long as it doesn’t hurt”.

Tuesday, 1/5, I had my six week checkup with my sports medicine doctor.  I, unfortunately, didn’t have a lot to report as far as fitness gains, as I haven’t done any real exercise since walking the half marathon on 12/6.  But we talked in more detail and as it turns out, all of my gloom and doom and worries were really overblown.  I’m glad I did the research, I won’t say that that was a mistake, but as it turns out:

*My impingement is so slight that it isn’t even really anything she would consider as needing surgery.  I have the CAM type, and it looks like one side of my femur is straight instead of curved.  It’s probably bilateral, as well as the arthritis.

*She feels my arthritis is the biggest problem.

*My pain is multi-faceted and includes tendonitis as well as the muscle weakness.  The tendinitis is on the right side, not the left and that is why the impingement and arthritis are not troublesome on the other side.

*There is a SMALL chance I have a SMALL labral tear, which is something that needs surgically corrected, but at this point, we are not going there.

*Might need a psoas release for full elimination of pain (no thank you!).

Basically, the treatment for the arthritis and the tendinitis is what I am doing … stop the activity that caused it (running), go to PT to strengthen, use heat, and other pain control methods, including yoga, which was highly recommended.    Low impact cardio and weight control.

When I asked her about running again someday, not because I wanted to run marathons again, but just for fun and shorter distances, and she said that I might be able to do that again.

So that is where I stand.  And I do honestly feel good about things now.  And very thankful that I won’t need to keep getting those steroid shots in my hip!  They are not very comfortable.