Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Successful Hip Operation!

Monday, I had my operation for a labral tear in my left hip with Dr. Joseph McCarthy at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital. The surgery is a hip arthroscopy that is a rather newer type of surgery. You can read more about the surgery here and even see a video of what they do on that link if you dare!

Having read all the message board posts of various athletes and people that have had this surgery, I wasn't sure what I was in for. One warning: on message boards you tend to hear from all the people that had things go wrong! I was extremely pleased with the results so far! I am doing better than the "best of" scenarios that I imagined. After waking up from surgery, I felt fine. Where was the pain? Of course, I had limited mobility, but I was happy to not have any pains!

When I got home I could sleep on my back and right side and move around slowly without hurting. I was walking gingerly with crutches, but moving OK. Yesterday, I started some light PT movement exercises at home. Today, two days later, I got out the door to go blueberry picking and got some ice-cream with my family. I used the crutches, but I can walk in a straight line without using them. I have to be careful of twisting and rotating the leg, but I never would have guessed that I would feel this good.

Now, I know there is a long recovery and I intend to take it very slowly, no heroics here as I want no setbacks, but it was good to hear Dr. McCarthy tell me before the surgery that I would be running again. The interesting thing will be: at what level? Will my hip go back to where it was a year or two ago? 10 years ago? 25 years ago when I started having problems? or what? I will be happy to just be able to run again, it has been a long year without running.

Tim Thomas, the Bruins Goalie, had the same surgery last year. Things worked out pretty well for him!


Tyson Gay, America's top sprinter, had the same procedure done earlier this July.

4 comments:

Michael said...

Great news Jim! Here's to a speedy recovery and an even speedier new you!

Steve Henry said...

I hope you have a speedy recovery (and even speedier when you run again). Suffering my second stress fracture in a year, so I have some appreciation for your frustration of not being able to run.

Unknown said...

I am scheduled to have the same surgery done in a month. Before you had surgery done, at what level of performance were you at?? Limited? Pain? I am an endurance athlete and frankly function at close to 100% besides a little pain, and am hoping that recovery will be faster that typical.

Thank you
Ryan
Ryan@amathlete.com

Jim Hansen said...

Ryan, I fought this for many years while running developing all kinds of compensations. In fact I know believe the torn labrum was the result of compensations for a loose si joint. I ran pretty well for my age (with pain and imbalances( until I could run no more and then it took a year to get the surgery. If you are young and haven't developed compensations, you should be able to recover easily. That is if it is just surgery for a torn labrum with no bone work like I had. I was running 3 weeks post surgery and did an 8 miler 8 weeks post surgery. I was still running with compensations, but the hip was good. I do not run now, but I think it is due to the si joint which I hope to have looked at this month. Best wishes!