It’s been just over five months since the accident and while the rib fractures and shoulder have healed well the low level consistent hip pain has not subsided. Hip surgery is going to be necessary and I’ll be having it done sometime in the next 6-8 weeks depending on scheduling.
In the past couple months, I’ve seen three different orthopedic surgeons, had three separate MRI’s, and one outpatient surgical diagnostic procedure to finally have solid answers and a surgeon whom I am confident is the best for my condition. Here’s the basics of the diagnosis.
- Tear in the acetabular labrum of the right hip combined with a cam type femoral acetabular impingement. – Basically this means I have a tear in the cartilage of the socket portion of the hip on my right side. This was caused by the femoral acetabular impingement, which is a genetic deformation of the femur bone. Basically a bump on the bone dug into and ripped a flap in the cartilage when my legs were flailing around as I bounced down the sand dune.
Tear in right hip labrum
- Radial annular tear and disc bulging of the L4-L5 vertebrae and degenerative disc disease of the L5-S1 vertebrae. This means there is a tear in the disc material in my lower lumbar spine along with bulging of the disc in one location combined with early stage degeneration of a disc in another. While all this sounds bad, the surgeon does not believe it is the source of my pain and will be leaving it alone. It will likely cause problems later in life and if so, I’ll need to deal with it then. This too was cuased by rapid twisting of my lower spine as I rolled down the dune.
The surgery I’ll be having will be arthroscopically administered through two incisions in the hip/groin area. In the procedure the surgeon will stitch the torn flap back into place, remove any loose cartilage or frayed edges, and then cut/shave the femur bone to reshape it in it’s correct manner so it will not be able to damage the torn area in the future. All fairly serious. I’ll be on crutches for a month and maybe a cane for another month or two. I’ll have to go back through physical therapy for a few months as well. While I should be walking normal at three months, it’ll take at least six months to know the long term outcome. This procedure is very new (less than 3 years old) and there are only a handful of surgeons in the US which have performed it. Luckily the only surgeon in Florida with experience doing this is in Tampa. Otherwise I’d have had to flown to Colorado or California to find someone with experience repairing this type of injury.
This entire process has been stressful. The surgery as any other comes with it’s own risk from issues with general anesthesia, to infection, or nerve damage. Having thought them through thoroughly I’d rather take the risk at a shot of having a better quality of life than living with the hip pain. More sobering is the mental knowledge that later in life there is a high probability I’ll have to have a hip replacement and that I could have problems with my lumbar as well.
Sadly, I’ve come to the conclusion pursuing a means to travel to every country in the world isn’t feasible at this time and I’ve tabled efforts to make it happen indefinitely. Backpacker, unplanned travel adventure such as I’ve done, takes good physical stamina and can be quite demanding. It will be at least a year, before I think I could realistically consider it again and who knows where my life will be then. For now I’ll be dreaming about it, working on getting healthy, and figuring out what else I can do to remake myself in the current economic slump to create an income.
