Many Thanks to J for all of his Disney and Miami updates. It was really needed as I was really sick during our trip (Jk was too).
Disney was great. We were there 1 year ago, it was immediately after my first injection so my hip held up pretty well for the trip. I think without the injection it would have been a nightmare. I ended up having surgery about a month later. This time, it held up beautifully without the help of steroids! YAY!! It did it all on its own merit.

We drove back to Miami on Thursday night. When we got home, I had a horrific headache. By morning, I couldn't move at all, I thought it was a migraine but then realized it was an awful sinus headache. I ended up taking a combination of Sudafed, Robitussin, Claritin-D, Tylenol, Darvocet and Aleve. All over the course of 4 days, much more than recommended dose, but I was dying. We woke up early on Tuesday to go home and again, I couldn't move. I somehow managed to get out of the house and on the plane. As soon as I got home, I hit my stash of antibiotics and felt better by the next day. What was interesting was that I developed all over muscular pains from excessive coughing (it was bad). At one point, every time I coughed my adductors would tighten up (I think only on the right)

So I am back now! I am now officially, forever, a PT dropout. It has been at least 3 weeks, maybe more. We are SO over!

I am also extremely upset with most of my colleagues. Actually, they don't know. They also don't know that I had a mini melt-down yesterday. Tell me if I am way off base. They all want to institute a "uniform" at work, we would all have polo shirts with the company name on it. I flipped out about this and was REALLY upset for a good portion of the day. There are many reasons I am against it, some personal, some professional. But this topic seemed to hit hard bc I was a wreck. J probably thinks I need to get a grip, but I can't help it.
Ok, I vented a little more, I feel better!
So we are home and getting back into the swing of things!

FUN IN THE SUN PART DEUX

Pictures from the grandparents boat

FUN IN THE SUN

While NY was getting hit with snow we enjoyed a nice day at the grandparents pool.

DISNEY DAY 3 (so sorry for the delay...)

Last day at Disney is always such a bummer. We are all depressed.

L and JK outside the Magic Kingdom

L and Susie's back on Thunder Mountain. L LOVED it!!! She went 2x!

What a face. JK on the caroussel before he puked (runs in the family...on the mom's side)

I promised I would show you JKs Crocs.

DISNEY DAY 2

Sue - who cares about the hip update? We're in Disney World. Thats what people want to hear about!!!

I am exhausted.

See you tomorrow for Day 3 update.

Breakfast with the characters. JK's favorite character.

And the little princess with her new best friend. Background - we went to Disney about a year ago and has breakfast with the characters. L wouldnt go near them. JK on the other hand did but was much more hesitent this trip. Anyway, this AM L wouldnt go near (in order) Goofy, Donald and Mickey. When Minnie came to our table she broke out of her shyness and ran into her arms!

JK had to entertain himself in other ways besides taking pictures with the characters.

JK still being JK

Epcott - On our way out of the Universe Energy ride, we stopped off for a frozen coffee drink.

And of course, those thingys you put in your crocs. L got 2 Minnie's (of course) and JK got 1 Goofy and 1 Pluto.

And The Verdict Is....

So far, 1 1/2 days of continous walking, standing, pushing a double stroller and.....my hips are doing pretty well. I won't lie, we had our moments today, especially the right (scoped 11/12/07). It wasn't so much the groin pain, rather, my ITB really acted up at times. Also, those lovely ass spasms came back for short periods of time. The left side (scoped 7/2/07) decided to tighten up adductors.

All in all, not bad. Especially if we are still going on the premise of 6-12 months for a full recovery.
I will probably let J post some more pics later tonight! I am ready to pass out!

THE MOST MAGICAL PLACE ON EARTH

You have not heard from me in a long time, the wonderful husband.

Thought i would share some pics from Disney Day 1.

JBL

More Happy Times To Come

To keep with the spirit of things in hipville, we are on our way to Disney World, the happiest place on earth. Should be interesting to 'put my money where my mouth is' and see how I hold up with all the walking!
Pictures to follow!!!!

Evil Influences

After Amy and I left Dr. K's office, she insisted we go to the most incredible cupcake shop EVER, Crumbs. The following is what happenned that afternoon, in chronological order.

Just some background info, it is no coincidence that amy and I have the same OS. We actually met through labralicious (a yahoo group for people with labral tears). She had posted about her own experience and mentioned that dr. K was her OS. I decided to take the liberty of emailing her off-list. My first email ever stated: "I am seeing Dr. K in a few weeks, I think I have a labral tear. I am a PT and all day long my patients complain about thier doctors. Is he an a$$hole?"

She obviously answered no and we ended up emailing eachother for a few months until we finally met in person last March. My kids adore her, you can clearly see why!

Fun and Laughter at Dr. K's office

A Guest Post By Amy

The day started out terribly... my flight out of Pittsburgh in the morning was three hours late leaving.. I was an hour late for my appointment with Dr. Kelly. I still had to wait forever when I got there, but this time, it was worth the wait. The plan was for me to see him, run out and get a few things at one of the dog stores and meet Susie back at Dr. Kelly's office to see Elie demonstrate all of the bones for him. I had a great visit with Dr. Kelly. Of course, he was concerned about my bleeding/oozing episode, and when I told him that when I finally had the CT scan that the seroma was 2x4 cm. He laughed and said "that's it? that's nothing!" I laughed right back at him and told him that was after I bled to death for three days. I talked to him about the "idiot resident in the ER", and asked if he was an idiot as a resident, to which he answered "no, I was perfect." I won't repeat what I said next... this is a G rated blog : ) He had me walk for him since I was begging to get off my crutches. I would take a few steps and vogue.. a few more.. pose again... Then I said "OOPS Fashion Week was last week!" He looked at my left hip and was really happy with it. I am almost 11 months out from the revision on that hip. It was really great to be able to laugh and be happy about where my hips are. He is happy as well with the progress on the right hip and told me that the surgery was pretty extensive, but there was no way he wanted to go back in there.. EVER! He loved the pictures of my dog, Kooza in her Plaxico Burress jersey and my Giants t-shirt. He did get on my case about wearing a Steelers' sweatshirt, but I told him that he should have snagged me a shirt in the locker room.. what the hell was he thinking, leaving me out like that?!? I go back up to see him in 10 weeks. So, I got out of there just to meet Susie coming in for her appointment. Elie was very happy to go over her bones for me. She is such a smart child. I think he was shocked to see me there... he kept shaking his head... he accused his PA, Arianna of purposely being somewhere else and setting him up for the torture of being in a room with the two of us! L got very shy when Dr. Kelly came into the room though. It was such a shame that she was shy, because Dr. Kelly was very excited to show her anything that she wanted. We had some fun with the pictures of Susie's psoas. He looked directly at me and said these are for the lawyers.. of course, this was a dig at my earlier visit with him when I told him that he would be hearing from the insurance company and that he needed to be clear that I am in the same boat with this hip so that I can settle. Susie's hips are great! She is not lying or misleading on this blog.. I saw it myself. I think that Dr. Kelly was relieved that she is doing so well. I asked him how she was able to get three surgeries in the course of a year, and he said I like her better. I told him that I thought it took me 18 months to get my second surgery because he liked seeing me so much. Of course, he kept shaking his head as Susie and I were double teaming him. He did offer Susie his condolences on the Patriot's Super Bowl loss as well, Susie confronted him about calling her "Crazy." He said "I did not say that about you... I have said it about her (meaning me) many times. We took a few pictures in the office. The best one is the one below of me and Dr. Kelly. It was too funny because I handed Susie the camera and said "there is one picture I want". Dr. Kelly said "It is you stangleing me!" I think it is going to be my new screen saver!! I know that most people could not get away with this with him, but he really does have a very funny and sarcastic side that comes out when he gets to know patients a little better. I am naturally sarcastic and aloof at times, so we are a perfect match.





It was such a fun visit with a lot of laughter and levity and a celebration of 4 hips getting better and two very happy patients who are forever joined at the hip! I missed my flight home, as Susie and I misinterpreted the airline's website, so we had a slumber party.

The Start of Something Great

Yesterday was my 3 month follow-up with Dr. Kelly. For the first time ever, I left happy, satisfied, elated, thrilled...... We actually didn't discuss another surgery. I have never left his office without having a sinking feeling that this disaster was not ending. I think I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day. I know in the past I have said I was really happy and this is over, but this office visit gave me closure! We barely even discussed my hip, I told him it was great, and I am REALLY happy! Really really really happy!

The visit was even more fun bc I had entertainment! I brought L along, since she is OBSESSED with bones, as well as Amy, who had an earlier appointment and ended up hanging out with us. L really wanted to see x-rays, and she has been talking about seeing them and meeting Dr. Kelly for a while. She is such a funny kid. She even got to leave school early for it. But when the 3 of us got into a room, she became timid, and when he came in the room, she buried her head in my lap and wouldn't look up!

He was excited to show her x-rays, he was even going to get her some MRI's if she wanted to!

He started by showing us my scope pics, especially my "intact" (and absolutely beautiful and perfect) psoas. Lots and lots of shots of my psoas, (for the lawyers, of course, he joked). He told me I was very scary when I "threatened" him during out psoas conversations and the pre-cursor to the psoas conversation. He let L have a sheet of scope pics! She was still buried in my leg but when we got home she was so excited to show J and Jk.

He checked my hips, and found the right to have more ROM (right was scoped 2x), he said it was because he had taken down a lot more bone in the right. I think this explains why I was having a lot of muscular issues there. I now have the ability to move more, but my muscles needed to be retrained in this new range. Kind of like what happened during my continuing ed course.

Of course the conversation turned to football (I will let Amy tell you about that part of the visit as well as the rest of the day, plus the best pic of the day)

But...he kept saying "she was right, she was right", (meaning, there was bony impingement in my hip the whole time) see, I knew I was not making this up August-November. And to think of all the times I nearly lost it during those months!
So things went super, I asked if he wanted to see me again....he laughed! I need an x-ray at 1 year out, I can handle that!!

As I was finishing up with the receptionist, he came back out and told me to come back and bring my chart. He had the Chief Resident there, he took out my scope pics and said "this is why you need to listen to your patients"!!

3 Months Post-op Hip Arthroscopy Revision

I was on the phone with hipster Amy tonight. We have a 'date' tomorrow at Dr. Kelly's office, for her 2 week follow-up and my 3 month follow-up. The topic of conversation turned to successful surgeries! Finally, someone who can understand my joy and elation, and smiles when no one else knows why. Joining us on our date will be 'L', who loves bones. I promised her she could see my x-rays, she is ecstatic.

Since my life has returned to pre-hip issue status for the most part, my old knee issues have returned. Way back in college and PT school, I had such bad knee pain, I had to ice after each ride. I am approaching this again. I really can't handle another orthopaedic issue right now, or ever! The good thing is the knee pain doesn't make me crazy, or do crazy things! I need to ice and get a grip on this, before it gets out of control.

J has been away on business, he was in Mexico last week. He decided to come home early tonight, conveniently missing bath and bed time for the kids, but early enough to want to know what I had made for dinner. His bright idea of the night came as he was watching a Tivo'd episode of The Biggest Loser. "Why don't you gain a ton of weight so that we can go on the 'couples' version together". For those of you not familiar with The Biggest Loser, it is a reality TV show featuring heavy contestants who battle to lose the most weight in the season. He is obsessed with it, and wants to go on it, but not alone. So, his idea is for me to join him! Fat chance!

Highlights from tomorrow's visit to follow!

What My Readers Symptoms of FAI or Labral Tear Were

Ok, so this is not a scholarly peer reviwed journal or anything, but I have found it helpful to know what other people have experienced, and I assume you do too, or you wouldn't be reading this. In the past, I have polled my readers to find out what their symptoms of FAI and or labral tear were, here is what they have shared. Feel free to add your own in the comments section, or email them to me and I can edit this post.
Here were my pre-op symptoms: Groin pain, deep deep groin pain, not always excruciating, but so annoying I felt like cutting off my leg, tight hip flexors, pain with sitting, pain with walking uphill, pain with pushing my stroller. I did not have radiating pain down my legs, all the hip pain was anterior medial.
This is what my readers had to say:
-At original onset of pain, I had acute, sharp pain along with a deeper pain in the anterior (non-PT term - front) hip. Once the acute pain subsided, I was left with a persistent but not 100% constant deep ache (only way I can describe it is comprable to early labor pains, or really bad menstrual cramps, or, in other words, not bad enough to put me in bed, but bad enough to ruin my day - but deep in my hip joint) along with the occasional "catching" of my hip. I would be walking and suddenly it would pinch and hurt too much to walk normally. I would usually stretch or range my hip and that would sometimes work. Otherwise I'd just have to wait it out, and later that day, the ache would be particularly bad. Now (3 + years post op) I'm at the achy stage, with occasional catching and occasional pain that is bad enough to keep me from sleeping, ie: can't find comfortable position, even with pillow between legs, must get up and take 600-800 mg Advil and wait. Those have been my symptoms to date. Hope this helps. I am eager to read about other people's symptoms - knowledge is power. (This reader had a scope a few years ago for a labral tear, her symptoms came back, she ended up being diagnosed with FAI and had an open surgery to address it)

-Clicking, catching (especially when changing direction when walking or getting in and out of car), deep aching. Now post op (scope with labral debridement of fibrillated labral tear) and still have aching (especially with sitting for long periods), nerve pain in thigh and butt, episodes of the hip giving way (though less frequent now). Pain is better with rest and worse with increased activity. Am now six months post op. Wish I had just broke it lol

-My symptoms started with groin pain, which seemed both deep and also superficial, and sometimes radiated up to my lower right pelvic/abdominal area. After awhile, I developed pain over my greater trochanter and in my piriformis muscle. Before my first scope I had SI joint discomfort as well, and also IT band tightness and soreness down my thigh to my knee. At first my pain was intermittent, but over time it became constant; it would get better or worse, but there was always a baseline amount of pain. Driving was horrible. Groin pain was always the worst symptom. Yuck!

Just a Light Note

I am still plugging along, still happy, and have not forgotten about my loyal readers. A funny thing happened in PT a few weeks ago. I have discovered Avon products, they are really great. One of my favorites is the Skin So Soft Spray Oil. I had sprayed it on one early morning before dragging myself to pre-work PT. It made the table slippery and P kept slipping off my leg. As he was working, he sniffed, and said "is that skin so soft?" I burst out laughing "How do you know what skin so soft is?" He replied "It is used as bug repellent". Ok, but it is still good moisturizer. I have since switched to Skin So Soft Whipped oil in Soft ad Sensual!

While I am on the topic of beauty products, I have to make a recommendation, I am in love with Cover Girl Lash Exact Mascara, but the one with the purple brush. I find no need to spend a lot of money on expensive mascara when this one does a great job.

I have recently come to the realization that have developed lines under my eyes. I purchased a wrinkle cream, but having on prior experience with this, I have been told that it is 'too heavy' and can make my lines worse, great! Does anyone have a recommendation for a good eye cream? I guess a year of hip bullshit took its toll on me!

Why Do I Open My Big Fat Mouth???

Just when I thought things were peachy, reality hit once again. Lets regroup and look at the big picture, if hip arthroscopy is supposed to have a full recovery time of 6-12 months, why I am bragging at 3 that I'm perfect. Someone please say "shut up Susie", you know you imagined those 12 seconds of painfree bliss, there is NO FRIGGIN WAY you are done with your grizzling (thanks Jess, I've been waiting for a good opportunity to use your word). So, if it makes everyone happy again, I had a wild dose of reality yesterday.

Normally, I work a 5 hour day, at which point I am beat, exhausted, and ready for cup of coffee #4 (or 5). My office is a bit understaffed this week because of vacation time as well as people at continuing education courses (see, its not just me who is a huge dork), so I volunteered to work 11 hours yesterday. 8 hours in, my legs both hurt so much, I was soooo sore, my piriformis threatened to go into spasm, my adductors tightened up again as did sartorius. Truthfully, I think many of my colleagues felt the same way at the 8 and 9 hour mark, it is an exhausting day. I can't wait to revert back to part time status!

(sigh) The Party's Over

I can't believe this. It once again goes to show that hips are soooooo unpredictable. I stayed in bed for most of the day yesterday, not because of my hips (remember, yesterday was sheer perfection) but rather because I was unbelievably sick, probably the flu or something. Today, I dragged myself out of bed and was struck with hip soreness. Not bad and debilitating in any way shape or form, but surprising after yesterday. It is actually mostly greater trochanter pain as I am sitting here. I am annoyed!

12 Weeks post Revision

As I was walking home from taking L to school this morning, a great thought crossed my mind. I have no pain, no discomfort, and no tightness. I don't feel a thing in my hips (both sides), it feels as if I did not have surgery! Whoohoo!!! I have been waiting for this day for over a year, to be completely pain and discomfort free! I know that this is probably not permanent, and there will still be periods of discomfort down the road, but what a great milestone to hit! I am back on the spinning DL for the moment, this may be why I am feeling so great. Battling yet another sinus infection, which leaves me feeling completely drained and exhausted. But I can't just stay off the bike forever, eventually, it will stop making things tighten up, and I do think that each ride is better than the previous one!

SuperBowl Sunday

Turning the Bend

I think tomorrow is 12 weeks post-op, wow, how time flies when you are having fun! I can't believe I have had the privilege of experiencing 3 hip arthroscopies, how did I ever get so lucky!
Thankfully, everything went super this last time! I attended PT a whopping 3 times this week, I guess that takes care of the dropout status, for now anyway. J is traveling this week so I won't be making it in early to have P work on me, so this week I revert to drop-out status once again. The only thing is, I may really need P tomorrow. My SI joint is giving me grief this week. It was giving him grief as well Friday, I asked him to manipulate it, which is a high velocity, low amplitude thrust that if done correctly, will generally result in a "pop". I am generally a great "popper" but it would not go for him. I was so sore all day Friday and Saturday as well. Today it feels better but I am keeping my fingers crossed that it remains like this. SI pain stinks, I develop a deep achiness right along my PSIS. It is definitely not my first bout of SI pain though, at one pint in time, I had taught J how to fix it for me, the only trouble this time is that I am not sure what type of dysfunction I am having so cannot instruct him in correcting it. I find that in the past, I am always developing 'issues' on the weekend, when I have no access to 'help'! SI joint issues are a small price to pay for hip relief, and I will take this any time over groin pain, losing my mind, and another surgery!