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Quick question for you parklife .. you mentioned some groin issues you had in your post above caused by a poor core which, following exercises prescribed by your physio, reduced to just the pain from the labral tear.  How long did it take for the pain to improve once you started these exercises and, also, how long before it disappeared completely?  Didn't have a good day yesterday pain-wise so you get a bit fixated as to whether this damn groin pain is ever going to go.  Maybe I'm being impatient (no change there then!) as the physio has said she expects it to be at least the middle of this year before I'll be able to run. Thanks.

ps glad to hear you think your recovery is going OK. Better to take it steady and take a bit longer to heal properly than try to do too much too soon and pay the price!!

Hello everyone and a happy New Year!!  Let’s hope 2013 is the year we all get back to doing what we really want to do.  It has been a while since I last posted, I have had a sneaky peak a couple of times but didn’t want to bore you all with the seemingly never-endingness of my situation. Pipes, I’m v impressed that you are back running, you must be so pleased that you are back doing the thing you love even if it isn’t quite at the speed you long for at the moment.  I’m just a little bit jealous if I’m honest with you!! 

So for an update – beware, it’s long, very long …. well for those that don’t know, I had a second hip arthroscopy on my right hip in April 2012 (the first was done in 2004) with Mr Villar and, reading back this thread, basically had the same done as Parklife (including the flap bit which, yes, they do apparently stick back to the bone using glue!!)  It was in the same place as Parklife and Dav0 as well.  The only difference was that my impingement was caused by a lump of fatty tissue as opposed to bone, so no bone shaving for me!  Anyway, surgeon’s office pleased with progress at 6 week post op check-up but suggested more work was needed on glutes.  So did more glutes exercise under guidance from physio.  2 weeks afterwards in late May got an intense ache in RHS groin to be followed by a less intense ache in LHS groin about a month after that.

Surgeon’s office determined it to be illiopsoas tendontitis and bursitis so I stopped all exercises for a period of about 4 months (as everything seemed to aggravate it) in the hope it would clear up – this included having a jab of steroid into the illiopsaos sheath at  the end of July but made no difference to the pain levels.  Desperation, in terms of both the level of pain, and an inability to sit down, sent me back to see the surgeon in mid-Sept and we agreed that I should try introducing some exercises for a couple of months, monitor the pain levels and if no improvement be booked in firstly, for a jab of steroid guided by xray directly into the bursa (at this stage I could quite clearly feel what felt like fluid sacs both sides which hurt more on flexion), and if still no change then a more major op which would remove the bursa and look at the same time to do a soas release if needed.

I have to say that the thought of more surgery just frightened me silly, not least the additional complications that could arise and also the logistical nightmare of looking after my 5 year old son whilst on crutches for a period of time again. 

I had a particularly bad week in early November when I decided enough was enough so having spoke to Mr Villar’s office, sourced a new physio (I hadn’t seen my existing physio since June, deeming it to be pointless) who I started to see at the end of November.  She’s taken a completely different approach paring everything back.  Interesting, she doesn’t think the pain stems from the illiopsoas specifically, but is being caused by a severe muscular imbalance resulting from the two hip scopes, childbirth (I ran throughout my whole pregnancy) and long term back problems from 2 decades of competitive racket sports that were never resolved.  She also identified a lateral pelvic tilt which is hopefully now corrected but only served to add to the imbalance.  I have little glute functionality, non-existent core muscles which, along with the tilt, resulted in overloading the hip muscles / tendons causing the groin pain.  Ramping up the glutes exercises was the straw that broke the camel’s back!

So Dav0, your post above is of great interest to me. It is great to hear that you are feeling better and your hip is feeling stronger as

Hi dav0.  Ranting on is fine with me, and I'm sure with everyone else who is reading this.  Whilst I would never wish this tedious nightmare on anyone else it is reassuring to know that I am not alone.  I have been trying to be positive (my husband is likely to disagree) but it seems like it's been a lifetime of waking up every day and living/dealing with pain, so of course it's going to make us miserable. 

Who knows what they can do to sort out the bursa if, indeed, that is what it is, but I am taking my husband with me to the appointment this week to try and get some answers - last time they weren't keen to talk about what the options were if the steroid jab failed to work.  There is only so long you can wait to see an improvement ......

Please keep me posted on your progress with new physio.  I'll post again once I've had my appointment this week.

I need to get on here more often, so many posts to read through. Welcome to the newbies, hope the information you read on here is useful for your own situations. Always reassuring to know that there are others going through the same thing as you.

Pipes - how annoying to have your op cancelled. There's always so many things to sort, partic if children are involved, so I totally sympathise. Have you been given a new date?

loverunning - sounds like you are definitely moving in the right direction, literally! I walked with a limp for ages (definitely quite a few weeks post-op) so I wouldn't worry too much - think it's quite normal. 

dav0 - good to read that your hip has calmed down a bit. Have you tried sitting on a bar stool at work BTW?  Sitting still gives me lots of pain both sides, but funnily enough the pain has eased somewhat on walking.  Have been doing lots of laying on my front to stretch the illiopsoas so thinking that has helped eliminate some of the rubbing on the bursa.  Bursa is still very inflamed on the RHS (LHS not quite so bad but same feeling both sides so know that it's not the operated part of the right hip causing grief), feels like a sac of fluid which is squished when I bend down or sit at an acute angle. Know what you mean about long journeys as well dav0 in the hope to get stuff sorted - mine's not far off a 140 mile round journey each time to see the consultant.  Next appointment is this week, will be interesting to see what they say this time.  Where is your physio based BTW? I'm sure the consultant will recommend having some more physio.  I'm going to see if they can suggest someone local to where I live. Happy speedy recoveries to everyone else I haven't mentioned.

Glad your op went well loverunning, but sorry to hear that you can't run again.  I know cycling and swimming will never replace the buzz from running (well, not for me anyway) but at least you can do something - get some cycling mags to read while recovering and give you new ideas for things to do on your bike etc.  Hope your recovery/rehab from the op goes well - the op is actually the easy bit, yes it's painful afterwards for a while but more mentally taxing is the rehab.  I think this has been one of the hardest years ever for me, rehabing with a young child is not ideal and has stretched my patience to the limit at times.

dav0 - I, to, unfortunately am a slow healer.  Why us hey? The pain in my hips is definitely not getting better through doing nothing yet (my consultant said I would notice some improvement after 2 weeks if it had worked, I'm notw 4 weeks on) so I can only hope that it will get better.  I have been told by the consultatant that most people get better with conservative treatment but that usually around 1 in 20 has to have a further op to sort out the illiopsoas, but they don't like to go back into the hip until a year has passed since the op. 

In the meantime my AT has flared back up again.  After having done nothing for a year I have got to the point where I need to know for sure that there is nothing more going on with the achilles other than tendonitis, so have an appt booked with consultant for mid-Sept.  Thought I might as well get it looked at whilst the hip is getting sorted.  If nothing else, a scan will at least show that it is healing (slowly?) or not.  I feel as if I have spent the last year just dropping my trousers to all and sundry to have a prod and poke in various places, it would be so lovely to be pain free and run round with my little boy.  I live in hope ...

I like the sound of the antigravity treadmill Pipes, sounds blissful to run pain free.  Hope your hip feels OK today, if so, go for it and book some more sessions.  It will make you feel so much better to actually say that you have been running.