Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum. I really want to add my story because reading everybody else's has been a great comfort to me.
I am scheduled for a hip arthroscope to repair a labral tear on 31st July.
My problems began in July 2006, when I thought I felt something 'pull' in my hip/groin area while out running. I was running about 40k a week at that time, and had never had any injury problems. I kept running although the pain didn't subside. I was getting terrible pain in my hip, although it normally didn't come on until I'd run a couple of k, although it caused me to limp afterwards. A couple of weeks later I realised I wasn't healing on my own, so I went to see an osteopath. He worked on me five or six times, said he thought it was possibly Bursitis, and prescribed anti-inflammatories. (to no effect, as it wasn't Bursitis) In this time, I had intermittent weeks off training, hoping to heal. Nothing worked, I got frustrated, so stopped going to the osteo. I was cutting back on my running, and just dealing with the pain, stopping when it was too bad. Also, about a month after the original injury I started getting a terrible pain along the side of my knee after I'd run a few k. This was worse even than the hip pain.
So there was a period of maybe a month where I was just frustrated, didn't know what to do, and wasn't seeing any medical professionals. (I really liked my osteo but didn't want to keep spending the money for no gain). Things got worse and I started having pain in my thigh, and all down the side of my leg. I went to my GP. He wasn't too interested, told me I'd probably 'torn some muscle', and told me to find a physiotherapist. I found a physio that a friend recommended. Because of the pain in my thigh and down my leg, he believed that a nerve might be impinged in my spine. I went and saw him for five or six weeks, running intermittently. Sometimes I would have a good run and could run about 5k with no pain. Sometimes the pain was terrible, especially if I was running two days in a row. I told the physio I wasn't happy, and he wrote a letter to my GP recommending a CT of my lumbar spine. This showed nothing.
By this stage, the symptoms of almost constant pain pulsing down my leg had confused the issue. I kept telling all these doctors that I felt it was my hip but found no agreement from them.
After the CT of my spine came back, the GP referred me to a sports physician. He found that I had trigger points in my back that were causing the pains down my leg, and referred me to a new physiotherapist (who is great, and I am still with) to sort out my back. By this stage, about six months into the injury, I could hardly run, and was even in a lot of pain just walking (all from the hip). I had no improvement in the hip or in my leg pain from anything the physio did, and he tried many different things.
FINALLY, the physio listened to me properly and performed those simple hip rotater tests and confirmed that yes, I had an irritable hip! Based on his word, the sports physician ordered an MRI with contrast (yay!) and a cortisone injection into the hip, which I had on the same day. The injection caused an enormous amount of pain for about 24 hours, and I never had any relief from it. It just didn't work for me.
The MRI showed 'Equivocal findings for a small partial thickness articular surface tear of the anterior superior labrum'. The equivocal bit had me stumped. I went back to see the sports physician about six weeks after the MRI and cortisone injection - he had wanted me to try and go for a run before going to see him, to see whether the cortisone had had an effect. I had a TERRIBLE run, the pain after about 1.5k was just horrible, and I came home and cried. However, at this consultation the doctor found that I had 'gluteal trigger points' which he thought were causing the pain down the side of my leg (which was now all the way down into my foot and toes, and was constant). He sent me back to the physio to work on that, and again the hip was put on the backburner.
After another 3 or 4 weeks, I had no improvements from the physio (big surprise!). This time when I went back to the sports physician, he organised two things for me - an epidural in my spine as an analgesic for the pain down my leg, and a meeting with an orthopaedic surgeon. I had to wait about two months just to see the surgeon. In the meantime I had the epidural (expensive and uncomfortable) which unfortunately has also not helped with the pain down my leg. I have now had that time CONSTANTLY for six months. I have no relief whether sitting, standing, lying down, nothing. I can sometimes be distracted from the pain when I am walking, but only because I am then in a lot of pain from my hip! I spent nearly three months on anti-inflammatories, which never had any effect.
When I finally got to see the surgeon, he looked at my MRI and said I definitely have a labral tear, and that he wanted to do an arthroscope. He had no doubts whatsoever, and explained that nothing but surgery can treat this problem. He also seemed to think that a lot of the other pain I get is probably related to the hip joint being injured. The back etc is compensanting, which from reading this forum seems to be a common problem. It may also explain the terrible pain I get alongside my knee when running (not that I have done that for about four months now!)
I am quite concerned about the recovery from surgery but have no choice but to remain optimistic. My surgeon operated on a friend of mine, Trav, in late December 2006 (an arthroscope to clear up 'loose bodies' in the hip joint). We went camping for New Year's and he was already doing really well. However, he is an international level athlete so maybe his fitness level had something to do with his excellent recovery!
There have been some very difficult things for me over the last year. 1 - the difficulties of diagnosis.
2 - family and friends not understanding the injury (how could they, when even the doctors couldn't explain it)
3- the pain obviously.
4 - To go from running 40k a week & training for and competing in fun run's and absolutely loving it, to not being able to run at all, has been so depressing. I did start doing pilates, and swimming, and some other things, but none give me the joy that running did.
My apologies for making this post so ridiculously long, but I just wanted to get my story out there. I especially hope that it might help with anyone else who is having trouble with diagnosis.
I am happy to answer any questions.
