New Hip for New York – What actually happened…

Hip XrayThroughout the year Inspired Physio helps a lot of clients who are about to have orthopaedic surgery because that is the answer to their pain. From meniscus repairs to knee replacements to ACL reconstructions. I just never thought I would be the one needing the help. So I thought I would blog my journey for those that have never experienced having surgery (that was me!), what it felt like pre and post surgery and what the process was to get to where I am and where I need to be.

 

Mid October I injured my left hip – funnily enough it was the test for labral tears (which is what I ended up having) called the quadrant where the hip is moved into 90deg hip flexion plus internal rotation of the thigh bone, that actually caused the pain. I hadn’t had any pain for at least 2 years before the incident but I sure had pain after.

 

Most people have asked ‘how did it happen?’ Was that all it took to cause the injury? Most people live with ‘injuries’ that they don’t even know are there – if I did a MRI on your back right now even though you don’t have pain there would more then likely be some normal degenerative changes as a result of age and a coincidental disc bulge or two. When I was 15 years old I remember Mum taking me to the physio because I was complaining of a sore left hip with dancing and I hazard a guess I was misdiagnosed then. The pain was achey through the front and side of the hip and didn’t take much to flare it up but with rest and rehab it settled down and I continued to dance for another 10 years. 2 years ago I was preparing for a Powerlifting comp and it flared up again, by then I’d been a fully fledged physio for a couple of years so knew it could have been a tear but I was determined to compete so we treated it and rehabed it and it fully recovered.

 

This time around the pain was similar to the last two flare ups but something was different, it didn’t settle down and I had a new pain which I hadn’t had before which was a dull ache down my adductors (groin muscles). It ached with sitting for more then 15min and standing for more then 15min but the worst pain was internal rotation of my thigh – that was a shooting pinch in the front of the hip and as I described it to my surgeon ‘I’d like to be able to get a drink out of the esky on the ground without crumpling like a sack of potatoes thanks’.

 

And that’s where my journey began – deciding not to live in denial about my pain because it was affecting my quality of life and also my work. Next step – getting a solid diagnosis and deciding what to do about it.

 

Deb Chen, Physiotherapist