Tag Archives: labral tear

Fearing The Worst (or Trying To Hope For The Best)

I’ve previously mentioned my hip issues on here. Also, my hip defect is pretty popular now since Lady Gaga has had surgery to correct the same issue that I have. This is something I’ve been dealing with since 2005. My right hip surgery was July 7, 2006 and my surgeon was sure I’d need my left hip done within 5 years.

And until recently, I’ve been doing pretty great! I have the occasional pains, but nothing like what I was having with my right hip prior to surgery.

But last week, I started to feel more pain more often. My left hip was having a catching sensation about 60% of the time. That’s not good. I was in a little pain, but it was more of a dull pain, and I am used to feeling a sharp almost electrical shock sort of pain.

So I decided to make an appointment with my hip surgeon to get checked out. My appointment isn’t until next month, but I’m already starting to freak out a little.

Maybe it’s because I’m starting to realize that my next surgery might end up happening within the next year or two. I don’t want to have surgery soon, because it will affect my brother’s wedding. I know that when I have surgery I will be on crutches for 2 weeks prior (due to not being able to take pain meds) and for about 6 weeks after. I don’t want to be on crutches in Maui, nor do I want to be in the first few months of recovery (it’s not the most fun time of my life).

Freaking out like this about my hip is all new to me. The way my right hip started to hurt was pretty sudden. I was walking in the Portland airport and I collapsed. I was barely able to walk after it, and the pain was so intense that I was scared that I did some serious damage. When I got back to LA, I went to the ER (I had pretty awesome health insurance then), and ended up being misdiagnosed. 6 months later (and after having to be on constant pain medications), I found out what was wrong with me and made plans to have surgery.

This time, I’m aware that I have a problem and have to wait for it to get bad. I was warned that this time, I might not have a sudden tear in my cartilage. It could be a slow process. I’m scared that the pain and catching sensations I’ve been having are the start of it.

But I’m really trying to stay positive. I have about a month to go before my appointment so there’s no use worrying yet. And after my appointment and x-rays next month, my surgeon might tell me I still should wait to have surgery.

All this freaking out might be for nothing, but since I know my left hip is a ticking time bomb, I’d rather freak out more than I should than neglect a problem that might be starting.

Feeling The Pain With The Weather (or The Full Story About My Hip Problems)

It’s been pretty rainy the past few days in LA. I know that we are lucky because a majority of the time it is gorgeous and sunny, but I hate the rainy days.

I used to hate it because my hair would frizz, my makeup would run, and my clothes would get wet (I hate wet shoes the most). But now I hate this weather because of the pain I am in.

I’ve always heard of people joke how they can feel it in their bones when it’s going to rain. Especially in bones that have been broken. Until 2006, the only bones that I had broken were in my toes (small hairline breaks that weren’t too bad), and I never felt it in my toes when it was going to rain.

But in 2006 (July 7th to be exact), I had my hip surgery on my right hip. I haven’t really explained what was done to my hip before, so here is my attempt. In 2005 I started having severe hip pain. It hurt to walk, and I felt like I couldn’t move my right leg all the way. For 6 months I was misdiagnosed (they thought it was a muscle tear) until finally my physical therapist recommended I go to an orthopedic surgeon. I did, and after an MRI to confirm it, I was diagnosed with a hip labral tear. There weren’t too many options for me to correct it without surgery, so I went for it.

In my surgery, they discovered that I had a bone spur on the top of my femur and that is what caused the tear. They removed the bone spur, removed the torn cartilage, and after about 3 months, I was pretty much fully recovered from surgery. I have the same problem on my left side, but since it doesn’t hurt too much, I haven’t scheduled surgery for it yet.

But because of the removal of the bone spur, the top of my femur feels the change in weather like a broken bone. I hate taking too much pain medicine because I had to do that for so long. Most of the time, I just try to not sit still too long (that causes pain too), and hope for the best.

Well, there you have my hip story. And just for fun, here’s a picture of me after surgery with the giant bandage that covered the 3 tiny scars that I had (my surgery was done arthoscopically).

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