31st December 2006

So It’s New Year’s Eve and what better time to start a new blog!?

Nothing big happening tonight, it’s too cold and miserable outside (it’s supposed to be summer), so here I am sitting inside on my laptop and creating my myspace.

I wonder what the new year will bring. Hamish has decided to go back to university to study law, good for him, but me…I like to win the arguments so I might have to read his notes

A bit about what’s going one with my hip (warning, LONG)

History:

In March this year I competed in a duathlon. I went to my doctor shortly afterwards with hip pain that was put down to a sprain. I was sent for precautionary x-rays anyway to rule a stress fracture as I had had some niggly hip pain before this injury (for about four years). The x-rays came back negative, completely normal and I was put on NSAIDS and told to rest. This seemed to help the problem, but in October I began experiencing the same pain again after taking up cycling (I was riding roughly 20km a day). Back to the doctor I went (a different one since we shifted house) who diagnosed Bursitis and ordered an Ultrasound of my hip. The ultrasound came back negative as well which was frustrating as I knew this pain wasn’t in my head! So i was told to try some physio and if I wasn’t any better in a month to go back and see him.

It was about three weeks later that I had my first physio appointment scheduled and by the time it came around my symptoms had increased A LOT. I now had intermittent, painful ‘clicking’ and ‘catching’ within the joint. Some of my joints click anyway and it doesn’t bother me, but this clicking and sometimes more a clunking was excruciating and would stop me in my tracks for a few seconds. The catching I had experienced in my hip before but not ever associated it with any injury, more just oops i turned the wrong way. It didn’t help that I didn’t really know how to describe this ‘catching’ or what to call it and it too would stop me in my tracks for about 3 seconds then it was completely gone. It was happening with rotational movements such as rolling over in bed, getting in and out of cars or even just standing up from a seated position. Some days were worse than others.

So I went along to physio and described what I was feeling and straight away she said to me, “this sounds very much like a Labral tear”. She decided to refer me to a sports physician who was experienced with this ‘labral tear’ problem and I went back for one session of accupuncture which didn’t help at all.

I went to see the sports doc who took one look at my history and said “yup, i know exactly what this will be”. Did the usual clinical tests where I discovered my left leg was actually very stiff and limited in motion compared to the right about 105 deg flexion at this point it just physically wouldn’t go any further and the other side would go to my chest almost! An MRI with arthrogram (injection of contrast dye into the joint) was ordered and has since come back positive for one small labral tear at 9 o’clock and a larger ‘probable’ labral tear between 11 and 12 o’clock. I have an appointment on the 9th Jan to discuss my results and treatment with the doc. I am told that surgery is the only option to get rid of this problem, and at this stage I’d do anything as it has seriously affected me physically. I have not been on my bike for 8 weeks and was training for my first race which I can no longer attend, so am very bummed about that. I am glad i now have a diagnosis and hope I can just get it sorted )

If you made it this far in my post then you’ve done well and deserve a breather, I know there are a lot of people out there with this problem that have been misdiagnosed many times and I guess this is me just wanting to share my story. I’ll leave it at that for today and keep you posted on my progress.

I wish you all a happy new year!