After three years of pain with what everyone thought was hip bursitis, I finally found the most likely cause. I have a labral tear with FAI. I had this confirmed by 2 different hip specialists. They both recommend surgery.
The problem is, I’ll be most likely starting a new job next month where I won’t be able to take a week off for 6 months to a year. A doctor can get me in Feb 13th, but I have a wedding to go to the following weekend (Feb 23) that requires a 2000 mile flight. Is this just impossible?
I want to risk it and if I can’t go, I can’t go. I don’t even know the people getting married, but my girlfriend wouldn’t be too happy about it.
For those who have had it, or have experience with it, is there just no way I’d be recovered in a week?
Pain wise, I was off my meds 3 days after surgery. I never actually felt pain post op, I just took the pain meds every 4 hours like prescribed (I would set alarms at night to wake up every 4 hours) and after 3 days just stopped.
Movement will be difficult. 10 days, yeah you’ll be mobile enough to go to events. The plane thing will be interesting, moving around in a tight area like a plane without being able to move you leg will be difficult. Personally, I wouldn’t want to go because it will be pretty inconvenient. No not impossible.
The job thing, as long as it’s not a standing job you should be fine. I was off crutches after 3 weeks, though walking didn’t feel normal for another couple months after.
Just a note, the recovery is very long and at times flat out depressing. I’m 8 months post op, and while most everyday activity is 100% pain free at this point, squats/leg presses to anywhere close to parallel still hurt and likely will for the rest of my life. It took multiple months until I could consistently wake up and go about my day without getting an occasional pain/set back. Actually, if im working on my feet or long periods of time (8+ hours) I’ll have times where my hip will mildly hurt.
Just letting you know. My doctor made it sound like the surgery was magical and I’d be running around after 4 months, though I didn’t believe that. If your doctors sound like that, they are right that the surgery can help, but it is not an easy and quick recovery. My physical therapist said he had a classmate that had it and it was a full year recovery.
Thanks. I was luckily able to have it rescheduled for right after the wedding. There was a cancellation.
The docs did warn me that it could take up to a year and that I still may have to have some prolotherapy after the fact since I’ve had the injury for so long (3 years). I’m definitely worried about it all. Thanks for your input. I’ll probably check in with you again down the road.
I have this as well, right hip. It hurts like hell, but it’s livable. I have a Drs appointment later this month, a sports ortho specialist. Truth be told, the only reason I would want to get it scoped is so I can squat without pain and continue my progress. Squatting is an addiction, and I need my fix, I can’t get it right now. If I have surgery and I STILL can’t squat, it’s not worth it.
Does anybody think we can squat again heavy, after surgery? I’m talking about getting scoped, not full blown hip replacement.
[quote]mweeks19 wrote:
Does anybody think we can squat again heavy, after surgery? I’m talking about getting scoped, not full blown hip replacement.[/quote]
This is the reason I did not get the surgery. My hip labrum is blown. Requires either a hip replacement or a new labrum made out of a cadaver IT band. I decided against surgery because I fear I will never be able to squat competitively again. After taking four months off, I am back at it and doing pretty well. Pain is manageable.
[quote]mweeks19 wrote:
I have this as well, right hip. It hurts like hell, but it’s livable. I have a Drs appointment later this month, a sports ortho specialist. Truth be told, the only reason I would want to get it scoped is so I can squat without pain and continue my progress. Squatting is an addiction, and I need my fix, I can’t get it right now. If I have surgery and I STILL can’t squat, it’s not worth it.
Does anybody think we can squat again heavy, after surgery? I’m talking about getting scoped, not full blown hip replacement.[/quote]
Depending on your surgery and what has to be done, I would guess it is possible you could squat after the surgery. In my experience, almost 10 months post op I cannot do a squat with weight but I can do split squats and leg presses. I had some cartilage removed and the bone shaved down. If you have cartilage damage, the odds of you squatting again go down. If you just have the bone on bone problem and no cartilage damage, I would say your chances of squatting are pretty good.
If you have this surgery, and if you eventually will be able to squat again (no one will know this for sure. If your doctor says he is 100% sure you will, he is lying. No one can 100% predict how you will recover) it will be a long time before you squat again. At least 4-5 months MINIMUM, and that’s if you recover very very fast.
I loved squatting, I loved most everything about it. I can’t do it now, and honeslty I don’t foresee myself ever attempting to incorporate them again in part due to my hip. If your only goal in life is to back squat, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s obviously bothering you now, and theres a chance the surgery will allow you to return to squatting theres also a chance (depending on your severity) that after surgery squatting isn’t realistic.
[quote]mweeks19 wrote:
Does anybody think we can squat again heavy, after surgery?
[/quote]
This really depends on the nature of your FAI and the scope of the surgery.
how much retroversion/anteversion do you have? High degrees of retroversion will make it hard to squat correctly no matter how much healthier the joint is.
how much bone material will they remove? the more they open up the joint by removing spurs and overzealous acetabulums/femur necks, the more likely you’ll be to have room in your hip to squat.
how much initial damage are we talking? If you’re really screwed up, recovery will be longer and impacts will be greater. If there’s just minor damage, trauma to the joint from the surgery will be less, recovery will be faster, and your post-surgery limits will be higher.
It may just be a fact of life that we’ll be able to do it for a while and will have a replacement somewhere down the line. I see some people thinking they’ll lose ROM after the surgery… that doesn’t really make sense to me from a JOINT perspective. Yes you will lose ROM initially, but with sufficient soft tissue work and a spot-on rehabilitation program, you should actually gain. My left side (resuction done at 24) gained internal rotation ROM and had been squatting ~315 or so with no problems until I had the right side done. The right side (repair done at 32) has been stiffer and has pain at the bottom of a back squat still, but seems to be getting better, although my doctor told me to never back squat and focus on lunges for strength progression. Not being a strength competitor, I do feel a bit freer to focus on other routes for leg strength and development than some might. Lunges are hell on earth and you can make the legpress really bastardly if you try.
Beware the scar tissue in the rectus femorus and keep your adductors as flexible as possible, within the bounds of your rehab ROM limits. And be aware that the cartilage will need a while to recover, much longer than you feel it needs and you’ll be wanting to get back to doing things before you’re actually ready.
I’d actually think (now this is pure speculation) that you’d be more likely to keep squatting (maybe even heavy, depending on the quality of the replacement joints out there) with a full replacement, because then you’d have a normally anteverted hip and 0 impingement. The silver lining in this cloud is that hip replacements are becoming more advanced and less traumatic every day. Who knows, maybe one day, hip replacement patients will actually be banned from competing due to unfair advantages!