Welcome to Hip, Hip, Hip Hurray!
This blog is about my experiences of recovering from a hip arthroscopy. I am a physiotherapist working in the Musculo-skeletal field and I treat people further to their injuries or following a variety of orthopaedic operations including hip arthroscopies. This time the “boot is on the other foot” so to speak. I will be on the receiving end of surgery/rehab and will be doing my best to recover as quickly and as sensibly as possible!
I have no idea whether or not it will be of interest to people but I am hoping it may be helpful for others who may have to go through a similar operation. However, please bear in mind that this is purely my account of my personal experience and will probably be different from other people’s experiences and may have had a slightly different procedure.
Why am I having the procedure?
The History
During the past 3 years I have been experiencing a sharp catching/ pinching pain at the front of my hip/groin which feels deep inside the joint. I can reproduce my pain if I bring my hip towards my chest and add in a bit of rotation of the leg. It is uncomfortable to sit for longer than about an hour at a time and especially on a low chair or sofa. I get increasing pain when I run and especially any mileage in excess of about 5k. I have virtually stopped running because of it. After cycling for greater than an hour, I am aware of a deep ache at the front of my joint. I am aware of a dull low level ache in bed at night. However, generally speaking it doesn’t interfere with my normal working day and it doesn’t make me limp. It does however, have a big impact on my recreational sport as a weekend warrior Triathlete!
I have always enjoyed a variety of sports from a very young age including
Tennis, Hockey, athletics – representing county in 800m and 1500 m, long distance marathon running and more recently Olympic and sprint triathlons.
Pictures below with my friends at the Buttermere Triathlon in the Lake District in 2015. (We had a lot of fun and boy was the water cold!)
As a physiotherapist, I suspected that I had Femoral Acetabula Impingement (FAI) and a tear in the labrum of my hip (will explain later). After seeing my GP, I booked an appointment with a specialist hip surgeon Mr Ali Bajwa from the Villar Bajwa practice in Cambridge who specialises in hip orthopaedics and hip arthroscopies. I saw him at the beginning of January after having had and MRI scan and an X-ray of my right hip. There are only a few specialist centres in the UK that perform the operation.
The next blog entry will cover the diagnosis…….
