It all began in January of 2016.
I can remember it clearly. I was walking up a pathway at my favorite place in the world, Live Aqua Cancun. I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my groin and my hip felt as though it was locked. After a couple of steps it totally went away, so I blew it off and didn't spend another second thinking about it - until, that very night when I would climb in to bed and felt that same sharp, catching pain. I wiggled my leg around and after a minute it went away, just as it had the first time. I remember telling my mother, who was with me at the time. I thought, "well this is pretty strange", but I was on vacation so I quickly forgot about it and continued to enjoy my time in paradise. It happened several more times during that trip, mainly while walking, running on the treadmill or climbing into bed. After I got home from a week in Cancun, I noticed the sharp, catching pain occasionally, which was concerning, however, the constant ache in my groin and front of my hip, especially after sitting for any period of time became very concerning over the coming weeks. I could no longer run without pain, and began to take this seriously.
About a month after all of this began, I decided I would tell my physiotherapist, Leigh, who I had been seeing for maintenance of chronic lower back pain. She did several range of motion tests on my hip and felt that I had a hip impingement. As soon as she said the word impingement, I felt sick. Three years prior, my mother had undergone surgery to correct something called femoral acetabular impingement and a labral tear. I told Leigh about my mother, and sat there thinking "this cannot be happening to me". In that moment, I remember thinking of the times I had taken my mother to her follow up appointments with her orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Wong. I distinctly remember him telling me that if I ever had trouble with hip pain, that I should definitely have it investigated, as FAI is thought to possibly be genetic. I can remember Leigh telling me that she hoped she was wrong about the impingement, and that she would work with me over the coming months to try to relieve the pain. She suggested seeing my family doctor, Dr. Forbes, and recommended some x-rays that would likely show an impingement, if there was one.
Off to Dr. Forbes I went.
During my appointment with Dr. Forbes, she did all of the same range of motion tests that Leigh did. She felt that I may have had bursitis, and suggested continuing with physiotherapy and also suggested coming back for an injection if the pain didn't subside within a couple of months. She also sent me off with an x-ray rec so that I could have the x-rays done that Leigh felt were necessary.
Next stop, x-ray.
I could never have been prepared for what was about to happen next. As I entered the x-ray room, the tech took my x-ray rec, looks at the rec, looks at me and says, "who ordered these x-rays". I said, "my family doctor". She said "well I can't do these x-rays unless they are ordered by an orthopedic surgeon". She was extremely rude and made me feel as though it was my fault I had shown up with an x-ray rec that was essentially "illegal". She told me that it would be illegal for her to do the x-rays and that she could lose her job. So, she just does one plain x-ray. I left the room in tears, she was that rude.
Within hours of my x-ray I received a phone call from Dr. Forbes. "Your x-rays were completely normal", she said. At this point I made another physiotherapy appointment to check in with Leigh. I explained that the tech would not do the x-rays and that my family doctor had phoned to say my x-rays were normal (little did she know, they didn't even do half of the x-rays that she ordered). At this point, Leigh decides to involve one of her co-workers, David, who works directly with Dr. Wong. David had Dr. Wong look at the lonely x-ray that the tech did decide was okay to do. Dr. Wong immediately saw "something" on my x-ray, that the radiologist had missed. Leigh then suggested going back to Dr. Forbes and requesting a referral to Dr. Wong.
Back to Dr. Forbes I go.
I explained that the tech did not do all of the x-rays she had ordered and that Dr. Wong had seen something himself on my x-ray. Not surprisingly, Dr. Forbes was ticked that the radiologist didn't report to her that all of the x-rays weren't done. She agreed to refer me to Dr. Wong, since my pain was not getting better at that point.
This takes us to today. April 25, 2016. Off to my first consult with Dr. Wong.
An hour before my consult with Dr. Wong, I had the proper set of x-rays done, no questions asked (of course not, they were ordered by an orthopedic surgeon, ugh). Once I got in to see him, he put my x-rays up on the computer and showed me that I did indeed have femoral acetabular impingement of my right hip. He explained that I have something called a pincer lesion, which basically means I have extra bone on my hip. Over time, likely due to running, this extra bone rubbed against my labrum (in between the ball and socket of the hip joint), and tore the labrum. Since I had been doing physiotherapy for about 4 months at this point, with no reduction in pain symptoms, Dr. Wong suggested that an arthroscopic hip surgery would be the best option at this point. Naturally, I was terrified, as I had seen the hell that my mother went through after the exact same surgery. However, I knew I was in good hands, and signed the consent. It was explained to me that if I did not have the surgery to repair the impingement and that labral tear, that the damage would continue to worsen and I would end up with arthritis at a very young age, likely requiring a total hip replacement in the future. Dr. Wong suggested that I have an MRI with arthrogram (basically am MRI where they inject dye into your hip joint before you go into the MRI machine), to confirm the tear. Having said this, he told me that based on my x-ray and my symptoms, he knew there was a tear and that surgery would be the best option. Dr. Wong explained to me that I could do whatever I wanted in terms of exercise, as long as I was building strength to prepare for the surgery.
Next step, wait for an MRI and a surgery date.
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