I have what?

I have been having hip problems since last August.  It just started hurting out of the blue.  I have a huge loss of movement and pain. At first, I hoped it was temporary and would just go away.  It didn’t, so I saw a chiropractor.  That didn’t help.  Then, I made an appointment with an orthopaedic clinic and saw an orthopaedic PA.  He did an X-ray and said everything looked fine and that he would send me to physical therapy and see how it went. I went to therapy and it didn’t help.  So, I went back to him and he ordered an MRI.  The results came back and showed torn tendons, tendonitis and torn cartilage.  Finally, an answer.  He told me I would have to have artheroscopy surgery and referred me to a surgeon at the same practice.

So, I went to see the surgeon, thinking we would set a date for the surgery and I could be done with all of this.   I went to see him and he had very bad news for me.  He told me that I have a very severe, degenerative, congenital hip deformity in my socket called acetabular dsyplasia.  Basically the ball of my femur doesn’t fit properly in the socket.  Interesting.  At first, I was thinking, Ok…more answers.

Then, he told me that the surgery I need to fix it is very serious.  It’s called a periacetabular osteotomy. It would entail breaking my pelvis and then rebuilding  it to be like it should.  It is a very serious surgery with a long recovery period. They would make a huge incision, pull my muscles back, saw my pelvis apart, reset it an insert long screws to hold it in place until it fuses back together.  WHAT???????

I have torn and worn down cartilage that puts me into the beginning stages of osteoarthritis and I have torn tendons, all resulting from the hip dsyplasia. What we found on the MRI were only the results of the underlying problem. He said that mine was one of the worst cases he had ever seen.  Not something you want to hear from your doctor.  Also, he gleaned this from my X-ray.  Yea, the one that the PA said looked fine.  Ugh! Months of physical therapy for nothing.

If I don’t have the osteotomy surgery, then my condition will continue to degrade to the point where I won’t be mobile any more.  The alternative is to wait it out and then have a full hip replacement at whatever point in time that the pain becomes unbearable or I can’t walk properly.  The problem with a hip replacement is that it won’t last that long and I’m only 35, but the benefit is that recovery isn’t so bad.   The benefit of the osteotomy is that it would potentially last longer than a hip replacement, if I’m a candidate for the surgery.

I left his office in tears and in shock.  I just couldn’t believe it.  It’s disheartening to think that I could struggle to be mobile for the rest of my life.  Also…running…never going to happen again.  I know most people think that’s probably a bonus and truthfully I haven’t been running nearly as much in the last several years.  But, as a former cross country runner, I do love to run and it’s a release for me, so it’s sad to think I’ll never run again.

I have been doing lots of research.  I have an appointment with two different surgeons who specialize in this area next month, one in Richmond and another in Philadelphia.  This is such a serious matter that I felt it would be worth it to get two opinions from leading surgeons.

The other thing to worry about is that we have the babies on the way and I don’t really want to be recovering from surgery when they are born.  Their due date is around the end of October!  (By the way, just talking about this like it’s actually going to happen is a huge leap of faith for me.  I believe, but I’m also scared as hell.)

It’s always something, right?  Anyone know of anyone that has this condition or has had this surgery?