I am struggling.
I am struggling, physically, mentally and emotionally. This is not the way that this recovery was supposed to go. 10 months ago I went into the OR to have an arthroscopic hip surgery on my right hip to shave bone off of my acetabulum and to fix a labral tear. By six months I should have been starting a return to running program... instead, I can barely make it through an 8 hour shift at work.
By 2 months post op on my right hip, I knew that something was horribly wrong with my left hip. It has continued to get worse and worse over the past 8 months. As you may have read in my previous post, I had an MRI in December and the surgeon believes that my left hip labrum is torn now. The pain that I feel in my left hip is worse than any pain I have ever felt in my right hip (both pre and post operatively). I honestly never imagined that I would need to go through the same surgery again on my left hip.
As the months have passed by my left hip continues to worsen. My right hip really seemed to improved around months 6-8. A couple of months ago I had a period of about 3 weeks with little to no pain in my right hip. However, my left hip was in horrible pain, causing me to limp and compensate a lot using my right hip.
I am lying here today with my hips wrapped in a heating pad. I've given up on taking pain medication, because nothing works, so I don't see the point in filling my body with it, if it's not taking the pain away. I spent 2 hours at physiotherapy this morning where my incredible PT spend a ton of time with me doing an over all assessment of my back and hips. To put it simply... my body is basically f***ed from my back to my knees. My back will not go into flexion when I bend down, meaning my hips are doing all the work which is killing them. I have serious problems with my left hip joint and because of that I am compensating with my right hip, which isn't allowing it to heal and recover properly. I am frustrated, sad, angry, confused, concerned and so much more. At this point all I can do is what my PT tells me and continue to do my PT exercises to keep my strength to prepare for surgery on the left side.
I did not expect any of this to happen... and it's no ones fault at all. It's just the way that things turned out and I have to continue to stay strong (both physically and mentally) and know that this will all get sorted out.
I have been back to work full time as a nurse since the beginning of February. I'd be lying if I said it's going well. It's great to be there to help people and have social interaction- but I am in agony throughout my shifts. My PT has been amazing in terms of helping me with work.. writing letters, making phone calls etc. Hopefully I will be back on modified duties soon and that will help things a bit.
So the plan now is my PT is going to get in touch with the surgeon and see if it's possible for me to see him sooner than the beginning of May. At this point I don't see my right hip improving at all until my left hip is fixed and my right hip no longer needs to compensate. I figured it would be another year or so before I had my left hip surgery... but now I am mentally preparing that it could be in the very near future.
Not the most positive update, but it's the unfortunate reality.
I am struggling, physically, mentally and emotionally. This is not the way that this recovery was supposed to go. 10 months ago I went into the OR to have an arthroscopic hip surgery on my right hip to shave bone off of my acetabulum and to fix a labral tear. By six months I should have been starting a return to running program... instead, I can barely make it through an 8 hour shift at work.
By 2 months post op on my right hip, I knew that something was horribly wrong with my left hip. It has continued to get worse and worse over the past 8 months. As you may have read in my previous post, I had an MRI in December and the surgeon believes that my left hip labrum is torn now. The pain that I feel in my left hip is worse than any pain I have ever felt in my right hip (both pre and post operatively). I honestly never imagined that I would need to go through the same surgery again on my left hip.
As the months have passed by my left hip continues to worsen. My right hip really seemed to improved around months 6-8. A couple of months ago I had a period of about 3 weeks with little to no pain in my right hip. However, my left hip was in horrible pain, causing me to limp and compensate a lot using my right hip.
I am lying here today with my hips wrapped in a heating pad. I've given up on taking pain medication, because nothing works, so I don't see the point in filling my body with it, if it's not taking the pain away. I spent 2 hours at physiotherapy this morning where my incredible PT spend a ton of time with me doing an over all assessment of my back and hips. To put it simply... my body is basically f***ed from my back to my knees. My back will not go into flexion when I bend down, meaning my hips are doing all the work which is killing them. I have serious problems with my left hip joint and because of that I am compensating with my right hip, which isn't allowing it to heal and recover properly. I am frustrated, sad, angry, confused, concerned and so much more. At this point all I can do is what my PT tells me and continue to do my PT exercises to keep my strength to prepare for surgery on the left side.
I did not expect any of this to happen... and it's no ones fault at all. It's just the way that things turned out and I have to continue to stay strong (both physically and mentally) and know that this will all get sorted out.
I have been back to work full time as a nurse since the beginning of February. I'd be lying if I said it's going well. It's great to be there to help people and have social interaction- but I am in agony throughout my shifts. My PT has been amazing in terms of helping me with work.. writing letters, making phone calls etc. Hopefully I will be back on modified duties soon and that will help things a bit.
So the plan now is my PT is going to get in touch with the surgeon and see if it's possible for me to see him sooner than the beginning of May. At this point I don't see my right hip improving at all until my left hip is fixed and my right hip no longer needs to compensate. I figured it would be another year or so before I had my left hip surgery... but now I am mentally preparing that it could be in the very near future.
Not the most positive update, but it's the unfortunate reality.
I am sorry to see this update. It is such a long recovery. I struggled with similar situation. As my first hip healed and recovered it became clear my other hip needed surgery. Hang in there!
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