Well... I have answers and a plan!
I saw my surgeon, Dr. Wong, on May 7th to review my MRI-arthrogram and come up with a plan for where we go from here. When he looked at my MRI he explained that my labrum looked great... that you could hardly even tell it had ever been repaired (if you've had a hip scope you can imagine the relief I felt when I heard those words). He then explained and showed me that my hip has a lot of adhesions or scar tissue inside. Everyone is a bit perplexed as to why this happened because I followed the post op protocol exactly as I was told- my mom did leg circles (circumduction) on me for 20 minutes a day for 3 months, I was on the upright bike 2 days after my surgery, walked lots, moved lots, took celebrex for 6 weeks to help prevent inflammation... you name it, I did it... but never once did I cheat and do more than I was supposed to before I was supposed to.
Dr. Wong explained that the continued pain and symptoms I am having with decreased range of motion, impingement pain (a lot of pinching), is very likely due to the adhesions. It was a bittersweet moment, I finally had an explanation for my pain... but in that moment it felt really 'real' that something was wrong with my hip.
So what's the plan from here?
Dr. Wong suggested that we try a hip injection first to see if my pain would decrease so that I could be more aggressive with exercising to try to break up the scar tissue on my own. I agreed. I also asked him about having a possible revision surgery to have the scar tissue removed... it's called thermal lysis of adhesions. It's a long wait to have surgery with Dr. Wong, so we agreed that I would sign consent to get on his surgery waitlist incase the injection doesn't work. Dr. Wong explained that in the revision surgery he would use a special tool that was hot and he would basically burn off the adhesions... as opposed to cutting them off. The idea is to prevent as much cutting and blood flow as possible to try to keep the inflammation to a minimum so that the scar tissue doesn't come back. He did say that he can't guarantee that the scar tissue wouldn't come back, but I can't be a nurse and enjoy my life with my hip feeling like this, so in my mind it is worth a try to get rid of the scar tissue and hope it doesn't come back.
Fast forward to June 7th:
I had my injection. It was an ultrasound guided injection of cortisone into my hip. As I explained above the idea is to hopefully decrease the amount of pain I am having so that I can be more aggressive in the gym. All great in theory... but the problem with being too aggressive is that my left hip has FAI and a labral tear and it gets really angry when I try to be "aggressive". Anyway, I got the injection, Dr. Wong's fellow actually did the injection while Dr. Wong explained to me and a visiting physician what we were seeing on the ultrasound. It was ALOT less painful than getting the arthrogram injection for my MRI's, which was awesome. I ALMOST got to have a mini camera inserted into my hip as well so that Dr. Wong could have a look in there (he said it was small like a needle), but unfortunately they ran out of them before my injection. I was disappointed, as it would have been super awesome to see what's REALLY going on in there... but I also think it's awesome that my surgeon is ALWAYS using the newest technologies to make sure his patients have the best outcomes! After the injection my surgeon watched my walk and put my hip through some range of motion and strength testing. It felt a little better immediately after the injection, but by the time the freezing wore off it was just as sore as it usually is. It can take a little while for the cortisone to work- so fingers crossed it helps :)
This morning I saw my physiotherapist. He spent a good 20 minutes working on my hip to help my ROM... and I did some exercises in the gym. I spend about 1.5 hours at physio twice per week to help continue to strengthen and manage my pain. I've said it before in past posts and I will say it again, I have the BEST physiotherapist and team at PT. I can't say enough good things about the staff at Citadel Physio, from the PT's to the kinesiologist, massage therapists and the receptionists, I would be seriously lost without them.
Anyways, those are the most recent updates. At this point I continue to wait for surgery & hope that this injection has a positive affect and allows me to move more freely to break up some of the scar tissue on my own. I've got a long road ahead and there are a lot of unknowns, but I have an amazing surgeon, amazing PT and amazing support from my family, friends and co-workers, so I know I will get through this eventually.
Thanks for reading,
Haley
I saw my surgeon, Dr. Wong, on May 7th to review my MRI-arthrogram and come up with a plan for where we go from here. When he looked at my MRI he explained that my labrum looked great... that you could hardly even tell it had ever been repaired (if you've had a hip scope you can imagine the relief I felt when I heard those words). He then explained and showed me that my hip has a lot of adhesions or scar tissue inside. Everyone is a bit perplexed as to why this happened because I followed the post op protocol exactly as I was told- my mom did leg circles (circumduction) on me for 20 minutes a day for 3 months, I was on the upright bike 2 days after my surgery, walked lots, moved lots, took celebrex for 6 weeks to help prevent inflammation... you name it, I did it... but never once did I cheat and do more than I was supposed to before I was supposed to.
Dr. Wong explained that the continued pain and symptoms I am having with decreased range of motion, impingement pain (a lot of pinching), is very likely due to the adhesions. It was a bittersweet moment, I finally had an explanation for my pain... but in that moment it felt really 'real' that something was wrong with my hip.
So what's the plan from here?
Dr. Wong suggested that we try a hip injection first to see if my pain would decrease so that I could be more aggressive with exercising to try to break up the scar tissue on my own. I agreed. I also asked him about having a possible revision surgery to have the scar tissue removed... it's called thermal lysis of adhesions. It's a long wait to have surgery with Dr. Wong, so we agreed that I would sign consent to get on his surgery waitlist incase the injection doesn't work. Dr. Wong explained that in the revision surgery he would use a special tool that was hot and he would basically burn off the adhesions... as opposed to cutting them off. The idea is to prevent as much cutting and blood flow as possible to try to keep the inflammation to a minimum so that the scar tissue doesn't come back. He did say that he can't guarantee that the scar tissue wouldn't come back, but I can't be a nurse and enjoy my life with my hip feeling like this, so in my mind it is worth a try to get rid of the scar tissue and hope it doesn't come back.
Fast forward to June 7th:
I had my injection. It was an ultrasound guided injection of cortisone into my hip. As I explained above the idea is to hopefully decrease the amount of pain I am having so that I can be more aggressive in the gym. All great in theory... but the problem with being too aggressive is that my left hip has FAI and a labral tear and it gets really angry when I try to be "aggressive". Anyway, I got the injection, Dr. Wong's fellow actually did the injection while Dr. Wong explained to me and a visiting physician what we were seeing on the ultrasound. It was ALOT less painful than getting the arthrogram injection for my MRI's, which was awesome. I ALMOST got to have a mini camera inserted into my hip as well so that Dr. Wong could have a look in there (he said it was small like a needle), but unfortunately they ran out of them before my injection. I was disappointed, as it would have been super awesome to see what's REALLY going on in there... but I also think it's awesome that my surgeon is ALWAYS using the newest technologies to make sure his patients have the best outcomes! After the injection my surgeon watched my walk and put my hip through some range of motion and strength testing. It felt a little better immediately after the injection, but by the time the freezing wore off it was just as sore as it usually is. It can take a little while for the cortisone to work- so fingers crossed it helps :)
This morning I saw my physiotherapist. He spent a good 20 minutes working on my hip to help my ROM... and I did some exercises in the gym. I spend about 1.5 hours at physio twice per week to help continue to strengthen and manage my pain. I've said it before in past posts and I will say it again, I have the BEST physiotherapist and team at PT. I can't say enough good things about the staff at Citadel Physio, from the PT's to the kinesiologist, massage therapists and the receptionists, I would be seriously lost without them.
Anyways, those are the most recent updates. At this point I continue to wait for surgery & hope that this injection has a positive affect and allows me to move more freely to break up some of the scar tissue on my own. I've got a long road ahead and there are a lot of unknowns, but I have an amazing surgeon, amazing PT and amazing support from my family, friends and co-workers, so I know I will get through this eventually.
Thanks for reading,
Haley
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