Like many of you I have been struggling with a torn labrum for a long time. I am a 20 year old college track athlete who was injured at a track meet about 18 months ago (which seems like forever). Since then I have had chronic achy hip pain and been trying everything to get rid of the pain.I went to an orthopedist at school last October who told diagnosed me with "tendonitis, bursitis, ?" and sent me to PT. After PT was unsuccesful he told me that I needed to look at my life and decide if I wanted to continue in college athletics because "It's not like you're a division 1 athlete". Needless to say I was frusterated with his response and decided to power through my track season (October - May).

For the last year I have been trying anything to relieve my pain. This has included PT, lots of NSAID's, ice, heat, stratching, chiropractic medicine, accupuncture, non-weight bearing exercise, anything the athletic trainers would offer me (e-stim, massage, ultrasound), and serious activity restrictions.

After coming home from school in late May I decided to really give it a rest and see if doing no athletic activities would help- it only made it feel worse. My parents realized that something really wasn't right and made me an appointment with a new orthopedist. Within 10 minutes he told me he thought I had a torn labrum. An MRI w/ contrast confirmed his thoughts, the tear was so obvious I could see it clear as day.

My surgery is now 9 days away. I'm not too nervous because I have been working in an OR all summer as a student intern. I pray that the doctor will be able to fix the tear and that this will be the beginning of the end for my hip pain. For anyone who is reading this and frusterated with their own hip pain, hang in there!! I was so mad at the beginning of the summer because I thought there would never be an answer to my hip pain. I am too young and too active to have this for the rest of my life. Good luck to everyone, I'll keep you updated after surgery.

Jane