After completing the marathon (and running a whole HOUR longer than my sister) I decided to take a little break from running. My knees were shot, and I figured this groin thing needed some time to heal as well. Being that I had trained all outside and was not a memeber at a gym, I decided to re-join Lifetime...and really go this time! haha I had not been a member since my post pregnancy days when I was "for sure" going to go 3 days a week. Yeah. Anyway, my body was in the best shape I had ever been in, and I wanted to maintain it. I started attending kickboxing / mixx classes 3-4 days a week. I LOVED it.
I slowly started incorporating running into my workouts again after a few months, and over the course of the next few years, my left hip pain was getting progessivly worse. I didn't want to give up running because it is one of the workouts that my body actually responds to. So I would suffer through at least 2-3 miles 2 days a week, and continued with my kickboxing. I even mentioned my groin pain to a general practice Dr., and she suggested going to see a PT. I didn't do it. I'm not really sure why. In early 2008, one of my girlfriends and I had decided we wanted to lose some pounds, so we would start running a little more and do the TC 10 miler in October. We both submitted our entry for the lottery, but I didn't make the cut. I was really bummed. Turns out, this was a huge blessing in disguise...
Over the course of the next few weeks, my hip pain became almost untolerable. It didn't matter if I worked out or not, I was in pain. I was taking up to 12 advil a day. I noticed the pain a lot more when I would power walk the skyway system over lunch, or walk the zoo with the kids...so one day I finally decided to go in. I went to the walk-in clinic @ Tria Orthopaedic in Bloomington. The Dr. took one look at my Xray and said "you have arthritis". I was crushed. I really didn't know much about arthritis, other than it's a life long ordeal, and I was only ready for him to tell me that the muscle was just pulled really bad. He gave me some vicodin, referred me to their hip specialist, and I also made an appt to see that specialists PA...she ordered the MRI Arthrogram. This is another whole story...
With this specialized MRI, the doc injects some dye directly into your hip joint. In order to make sure they have it in just the right spot, they take a few shots on the xray, and mark it. Then they take more shots as they're inserting the somewhat lengthy needle. If you are having this done, take it from me...don't look...at the needle...or the screen! It's just not necessary. Here's what it will look like:
EEKS! See...now I just saved someone from almost passing out on the table. It's not so bad looking at it while at home, chilling on your couch. But when you're on the stainless steel table in a cold sterile room with a long needle coming your way, it's just not the same...
This dye also has some type of numbing effect, so they wanted me to take note if my pain went completely away within a half hour or so of the injection. This would mean that the pain is coming from the inside of the joint only. Negative ghostrider. It still hurt.
So, my big appt was here...I was excited to hear how he (Dr. Aadalen, the specialist) could fix me. They had mentioned maybe there were some labral tears, and they could repair that pretty easily with arthoscopic surgery. He comes in and sits down, looks at my mri images, looks at me and looks back. This is how it went:
Doc: "Well, it looks like you have hip dysplasia."
Me: "Um, ok...what does that mean?"
Doc: "Well, your acetabulum doesn't cover the head of your femur, as you can see here. You also have some labral tears and some cysts formed."
Me: "Yes, I see. Well, how did this happen?"
Doc: "You were born this way, and the tissue is now degeneraged enough to cause you pain. Some people go their whole lives with it and never know it...mostly couch potatos."
Me: Wishing I had taken the couch potato route about 4 years ago when I agreed to that marathon, "ok, so you can fix it, right?"
Doc: "Well, I'm a specialist with a scope...this requires a little bit more. I know of a doctor, Dr. Trousdale, at the Mayo who does this specialized surgery. It's called a hip osteotomy."
Me: "A what?" Granted I'm so in shock right now, I can't even breathe. "Can you spell that?"
Doc: "We'll get you the information you need. If you have any problems getting in, just let us know. After you meet him for the consult, we can get you a shot to try to relieve the pain."
Me: "OK. My vicodin is almost gone, can I get a refill on that?"
Doc: "Sorry, if I refill that, your body will get used to it and you won't be able to take care of your pain after surgery. We'll get you a non-narcotic pain medication."
Me: Thinking...great...he can't help me AND he's taking away the little relief I do get from this whole ordeal..."thanks..."
So, that was it. Oh, and that was over 4 months ago...and yep, I still have not been to see Dr. Trousdale. Turns out, they couldn't do much to get me in...
My appt is scheduled for March 31, 2009. I am calling his scheduling receptionist almost once a day to see if there are any cancellations. I feel like I'm bothering her...but she told me to do it! Since that day of my appt, I have not ran at all...well, except to catch my bus, which is not pretty to watch. I'm doing elliptical & non-impact kickboxing for my workouts. I just can't give up the kickboxing! I took a few weeks off of working out over Christmas to see if that was making it worse, and the pain remained the same. I'm taking the non-narcotic pain med Tramadol a few times a day. I'm looking forward to getting a shot and maybe that will help with some of the pain.
So there you have it. I'll keep you posted on what's next. :-)
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