Femoroacetabular impingement & Labral Tear

[drewfromrisca]

After 3 yrs of agonising, excrutiating and horrific pain the so called specialists have diagnosed me with these conditions. I'm trying to do as much reasearch and get as much info as possible before I go under the knife.



Anybody on here had these problems or know anyone whose a sufferer???



Cheers!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

OMGosh, Drew!!!!  That

OMGosh, Drew!!!! That doesn't sound good at all. Those names are just scarey. I wish you well and have a successful surgery.

 

[jschwab]

I think you need to really do

I think you need to really do your homework with this one. FAI is the acronym so search for it using that. I don't have FAI but I have an injury that often copresents with it (athletic pubalgia). Labral tears are weird. They like to do surgery for them, but if you cut open everyone who dies, there is something like a 90% rate of labral tears, most of which never cause problems. I have bilateral labral tears that mean nothing and I only know about from gettin MRI's for the other problem (athletic pubalgia).

 

[drewfromrisca]

Hi jschwab, I've never come

Hi jschwab, I've never come across your problem before??? What are your symptoms???



I viewed the MRI the doctor showed me and it's a pretty large sized tear!!! After 3 long...wait...very very long and painful years I'm hoping that this is the problem and it can be solved as I'm so fed up of being in agony constantly and it's pretty much ruined my career to boot.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

That's terrible, Drew.  Sorry

That's terrible, Drew. Sorry about your having to go through that. Be positive.

 

[jschwab]

It sounds like you've been

It sounds like you've been through alot to get to this point. I think if you are convinced by the MRI, your gut instinct is probably spot on. I hope it all works out with the surgery!

Here are a couple of links that might be helpful:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2958132

http://www.sportsherniablog.blogspot.com/

My injury is weird - mostly men get it and the symptoms for women are different. It's also called a sports hernia - the abdominal muscle detaches from the pubic bone. It's very traumartic, At first, for me it was unrelenting spasming pain in my whole torso, especially lower back. Then it mostly referred up into my shoulder (in men it causes testicle pain). Later when the pain died down I felt like I had a bowling ball right behind my belly button. I never really felt it much at the actual injury site, and when I did, it was not really exactly pain but intense discomfort like my body was unraveling.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Geez, J!  How long ago was

Geez, J! How long ago was that? How long had you had this injury before you were seen? How long did it take to heal from it?

 

[Phil Hart]

Drew:The thing that started

Drew:

The thing that started me running was diagnosed alternately and/or simultaneously as a labral tear, a sports hernia, arthritis (wearing down of the cartilege), lower vertebral spinal column compression/misalignment and/or torn hip flexor ligaments in my right hip.

All of this started as a dull aching in my right hip both toward the front (hip flexor area) and the back (like the sciatic nerve area). It then grew slowly and inconsistently, but continuously over a few months to feel like a hernia, even to the point of hurting when I coughed or sneezed hard.

I got several educated opionions, from a very reasonable and logical chiropractor to two highly specialized sports medicine orthopedists, one for the LA Kings and one for the Atlanta Thrashers. All of these diagnoses - with the caveat of "possibly" from each - were the result. In fact, the Thrashers' doctor said that some people who had similar but not definite signs of a sports hernia (like I had) had felt much better after the surgery even though it technically had not corrected a clearly defined problem. "I don't really know what's wrong, so I'll just cut you open like a watermelon, poke around and see if I can find anything to fix and then see if you feel any better" is not a compelling enough case for me to allow someone to slice me open.

Having taken a year off from running, during which the only aerobic exercise I could do consistently without inflaming and prolonging these symptoms turned out to be the elliptical machine (and only backwards pedaling on that) I seemed to improve for the most part. Not 100%, but back at 90% or so.

BFR has not caused any of these symptoms to return, although a large number of crunches, situps, pushups or any other exercise which places solid tension on core muscles, which include the hip, seem to bring out reminders and hints of that same discomfort.

It sounds like you may have carried my research plan a little further and found some folks who really do know what's wrong. Hopefully my experience may shed a little more light on yours, and I hope you get a great result and are back out with us again soon.

Phil

 

[jschwab]

TJ, I was REALLY lucky. I got

TJ, I was REALLY lucky. I got a diagnosis pretty quickly because I am in an online parenting group with a chiropractor who was a genius. She ordered the right MRI (they also happen to have developed a protocoll for a diagnostic MRI right in the hospital near my work). It was nothing like the OP's 3 years - that would have been awful.

It happened November last year and by November this year I felt largely injury-free -- without surgery. Even though, unlike Phil, I trusted the surgical procedure and my surgeon and the injury was clearly visible, it's major abdominal surgery, not laparoscopic. I spent 3 births laboring in my living room to avoid a c-section. I was not about to get a huge scar now!

I was VERY proactive and serious, though - 2-3x a week with the chiropractor, intensive gym schedule for strengthening. That was the hardest part - in June, even after months of working on my strength at the gym, I could not manage a plank for even one second because it involved my core. I had a breakthrough right after that when suddenly everything got much easier and I systematically strengthened my whole core, and that is what really made the difference. 95% of people with this diagnosis get the surgery. I am not healed - the injury will always be there, but I am finding I am managing it really well (and PR'ng). A month ago, I ran the half marathon where i sustained the injury a second time, 20 minutes faster and no hint of injury.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

What causes these kinds of

What causes these kinds of injuries, you guys?

That's amazing you were able to get orders for an MRI from someone you communicated with in an online group though. Wow.

Phil, that sound like quite an ordeal to go through in order to find the right diagnosis.