Source
r/HipImpingement•
ForestAlliance

Going down hill from what was initially a good recovery

Post-op pain (after 6 months - 1 year)

28m. 4 months post op was great. Still had hope about a return to normal activities. My PT said I was one of the best recoveries he’d seen. I had probably hiked 6 miles and had ran another 3 in week 16. Feeling great.

The following week I had burning in both hip flexors. My non op hip became very inflamed and began showing pinching and FAI symptoms that havent gone away since. I ceased hiking and running for a bit.

Month 6. My op hip stopped increasing ROM. Interior flexion is severely limited. Exterior has seemed to improved. I can go on a couple 1 mile runs a week but doubt their efficacy. I’m now doubting the surgery’s success and and am unsure what to do with either of my hips.

Anyone have similar hurdles around 6 months that ended up resolving?

Should I get surgery on my non op with underwhelming results on the op hip? Possibly any other issues that FAI surgery won’t address? I’m totally lost.

Posted Jan 13, 2022, 2:59 AM UTC

638
Confident_Cicada_784•

I am 11 months post op. I had a flare up around the 5 month and it took a whole month to resolved. The only thing I can say is do stretched and take it easy. This probably won’t be the last flare up you’ll have unfortunately. But be patient, I am doing really well now with almost no pain or discomfort in most of my activities. It’s just a very long recovery.

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Lmb326•

Anything specific you did to resolve your flare or just scale back your physical activity?

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Confident_Cicada_784•

In my local gym they have a pool and a jacuzzi so they became my best friends during that time. Water exercises REALLY helped

6
nat121212wt•

What type of water exercises do you do?

1
ForestAllianceOP•

Glad to hear your success. Gives me hope. Thanks for your reply!

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mabdel511•

What do your flare ups feel like, I'm having so much pain ant can't tell what it is. The pain is everywhere, my quad, Calf, shin, butt

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Confident_Cicada_784•

For me it’s mostly my hip flexors, on the side of my hip and glute. I used to get very scared every time I had one and felt like I had reinsured myself but they go away with time. It’s just a very annoying recovery.

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yt545•

Fwiw mine got a lot worse, especially the hip flexors, once I started doing more active exercises again. It was about a year post op (on both sides) before I could comfortably run again. It reads to me like you may have gotten ahead of yourself with the running and pushed it too far too fast. My guess is you're ok but you need to back off and reset your expectations for a little while.

Eta I'm also really surprised they allowed you to run so much at 4mo. Even at 12wks I was in PT and still doing the bike and light walking.

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ForestAllianceOP•

I really hope you’re right. Thanks for your response

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Lmb326•

what does your PT say? are your flexors still bothering you? My surgeon and PT have always said this is a full year recovery. I am at about 7 month now and dealing with muscle soreness. Is the pain coming from the joint or surrounding muscles? If muscles, hopefully PT can figure out what isn't working properly ...

5
ForestAllianceOP•

My hip flexor is still a bit tight when I stretch it but isn’t painful. My flexor feels better in my op hip than my non op. It’s just the interior pinching I’m worried about, makes me think I’ll retear

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TheBig_Smooth•

Oh no, that’s awful. I’m a little surprised your PT/Doc gave you clearance for that much activity at 4 month. Mine put the fear of god in me about overdoing it from months 2-5. If you are gonna have another surgery a reconstruction might be a better route then a repair

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Lmb326•

When did/what month you start to become more active and hike or run? Did you get any flares when you started to return to physical activity?

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TheBig_Smooth•

I cranked my activity up in month 5 but mainly Peloton, swimming and walking to avoid a lot of hard impact on the surgical hip since it was reconstruction. I had general soreness but nothing painful. I also had to get the other side reconstructed 6.5 months out from the first one so didn’t get to crank up the activity anymore. I’m now 6 weeks out from the other side but also had to get a micro-fracture procedure so this recovery is gonna be way longer.

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Lmb326•

Wow. Sounds like you have been through a lot. Why reconstruction and not repair?

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TheBig_Smooth•

Yep been super fun! I’m 44 and my surgeon in Denver who’s done more labrum surgeries than anyone and will only do repairs for folks under 30 and even then not in all cases. He was seeing 35% failure rates for folks over 30 so he stopped doing those about a decade ago. He only sees 6% failure rates on his reconstructions

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akathisiac•

sorry to hear about this turn. Sometimes we can get long flares that take a while to lay off if we haven’t adjusted some compensatory muscle habits through PT.

that said, the 4 to 6 months is about when things start going wrong in studies if a hip scope fails due to dysplasia—patients seem to do well up until about that point, which is when the instability starts to cause problems again. did you get screened for that pre-op?

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ForestAllianceOP•

Have to look more into dysplasia. My doctor said I was borderline but didn’t pay it much mind. Thanks for that info!

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FAIsufferer•

You need a way better surgeon then…

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engiknitter•

Why do you say that?

Asking because I’m hypermobile and my surgeon mentioned that it was a post-op risk. I elected to proceed with surgery.

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The_fractical_life•

I just had surgery for labral tear caused by hip micro instability. Apparently it’s an under diagnosed thing bc it doesn’t present acutely like dysplasia. My femur head sat right on the edge of the normal range + I have ligament laxity. They tightened my capsule during surgery, which we hope will resolve the issue

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FAIsufferer•

Surgeon needs to be experienced with dysplasia and capable of determining whether or not you need an osteotomy — and if not, how to arthroscopicall treat it. This is not something to brush over. Normally only the best of the best can do this successfully. I let 2 different psychopaths operate on my leg (one works at the Mayo in Jax, Fl) and both failed to fix my impingement and caused other issues due to not being experienced enough with borderline hip dysplasia.

Then both lied to me and tried to prevent me from getting second opinions and refused to do further scans and treated me like I was crazy for being in pain.

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MuteMouse•

No idea, I'm over 4 months on a revision and having pain so got another MRI and there was a stress reaction/fracture of the femur out of no where, no falls or intense anything. Haven't even been able to run so it's not that. Maybe consider an updated MRI.

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Smully222•

Did they find any bone marrow edema? I had a stress reaction of the femur too out of nowhere. Found on pre-op MRI.

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MuteMouse•

Yes I believe they found bone marrow oedema on the report but I don't know what that means, surgeon didn't bring it up.

The surgeon just said crutches 4 weeks and ordered a bone density scan. I do have low estrogen/testosterone which is the only thing I can think of causing lower density, I take 6000iu of Vit d plus magnesium and K2 to let my levels in the optimal range.

Im having pain that mimics pre op labral tear, maybe worse, and I have no idea if it's a failed scope or the stress reaction. It feels like it's inside the joint vs the stress reaction is intertrochanteric so outside the joint below the femoral neck.

I also have sore foot, sciatica, and foot drop, caused by my hip/piriformis I believe.

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Smully222•

Ugh. So sorry you’re still struggling. I see so many people with good outcomes, myself not being one of them. While my mobility and clunking is much better, the pain is still very much there. I’ve also had this strange pain running down my outer quad, knee, and front of my shin/ankle. Normal lumbar MRI and EMG. I’m so distraught over all of this. Pyriformis injection didn’t help me at all.

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engiknitter•

My surgeon noted that my bones were “soft” so I’m scheduled for a bone density scan too.

I have some autoimmune stuff going on separately from the hip and I’ve been on 50,000 IU of Vitamin D weekly. I was previously taking 2,000 IU Vit D per day. My doc suspects that my Vit D was low for years but we don’t have a baseline from before I started the 2000/day.

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Whyitsospicy•

Yep. Overcompensating is a real issue.

3
jjj03e•

Are you still doing PT exercises? That was critical for me to keep doing, and research is showing that it results in better long term outcomes. Don't be afraid to ice if you need it either, or use NSAIDs for 3-5 days to get the inflammation down.

I had a flare-up on my non-op hip around that time, up until 8 months. Now I am 2.5 years post-op, and I actually am scheduling surgery on the second hip now. It is possible that you might need it done, and I would consult with your surgeon again for sure

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ForestAllianceOP•

I do think this is a main issue for me. I was on top of it until I started feeling better. Kinda just started hiking again and stopped PT. Now I’m here.

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snicole1173•

I had flare-ups for about a year the first time I had surgery. Mostly if I did too much impact training and didn’t compensate with enough strength training. I also chose my PT based on what I wanted to get back to, so he knew (I still see him, he’s been my PT for all 3 operations) I wanted to get back to running and we worked towards that. A lot of anti-gravity running so I could correct my stance. If I flared up I would take a full break for a week, go back to just strength training, and then start impact again bc that helped the most.

The recovery takes times, a lot of time. There’s a lot of ups and downs, but definitely rely on your physical therapist as needed! And if you aren’t still going, call and ask if you can see them again through a flare-up! They can help you see what may have caused it and give you at home routines to help through any others you might have.

Also, from reading your comments it seems like your surgeon isn’t the most detailed, especially with the paying no mind to borderline dysplasia. I would ask around and see if you can get a second opinion especially if you think the other hip might need operated on too! I chose a new surgeon for my last 2 operations and having a detail minded surgeon compared to one that didn’t show me much care/didn’t pay attention to the little things had been so much better and I have way less worry as things progress in the rollercoaster of recovery

3
desertsky7•

This sub has been both incredibly helpful and worrying at the same time! At the very least, I feel connected to all of you through shared experience of discomfort. I’ve pretty much tried to ignore and work around my torn labrum’s and impingements for a long time, but as I hit my 50th I am more and more aware that it’s just getting worse, and I’ll likely need to get cut on, despite my fears and the inconvenience.

So, two questions:

  1. I travel constantly as a music and sports event director/producer. What is travel like when in various stages of recovery? When would you suggest that sitting on planes, busses, and walking are basically doable on a daily basis?

  2. I’m an avid skier, and get after it pretty hard when on the hill. Really the first indication that I had an injury was probably 15 seasons ago when I noticed painful exterior hip cramps while trying to ski anything steep that required a hop turn, moguls etc. So, who here has experience with skiing hard after the surgery? How long did you take off? Is it painful, or a concern that you’ll mess up the repairs as you absorb shock on you first days out? A year out? Has anyone gotten a sense that they are healed, fully good to go for skiing hard, and even “fixed” so that skiing at an advanced level is finally pain free and more possible after surgery than before?

Thank you all for describing your experience. It is SO bloody helpful! I wish you all speedy and full recoveries!

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