Post-Surgery

It's getting hot and humid out there--summer is right around the corner here in So FL!

I finally had surgery on my hip last Wednesday.  I saw my surgeon this morning; he said it all went very well.  He removed 16-17 little loose "bodies" and the inflamed lining.  I also had a labral tear (tear in the ring of cartilage around joint cavity) that he repaired.  I'm on crutches and have to wear a brace that keeps my leg from abducting or extending back too far.  I am also not supposed to internally rotate my leg (the labral tear was in the inside front area).  Physical therapy will begin next week--dr said six weeks, then another six weeks of more intense PT.  Then...  I can begin to get back to my running!  Yay!
My runners are doing great.  Several of them ran a local 10k this past weekend and I wanted to go.  But my husband had a terribly bad cold, bad enough for him to spend most of Sunday in bed, and I didn't think I was up to driving over to the race by myself as I was just four days post-op.  I want to get some more video of them.  There are some 5k's coming up I will go to.  I want to get some racing video and some doing things like form drills and techniques.

Here I am with my brace on...

It's Back - Synovial Chondromatosis

It's back. The disease is back. The surgeon told me not to worry, it wouldn't come back, very unlikely to come back.

My hip and leg have been getting worse over the months instead of better, so I finally went back to the ortho doctors. They thought it might be coming from my lower back, had an MRI--no, not my back. I had an MR arthrogram a couple weeks ago... wasn't very hopeful of anything showing up because nothing did the last time. But there it was.

From what I understand now, this thing is like cancer (though not cancer--it's a benign condition) in that if you don't get it all, if there are still cells left, it can come back.

It's not as far along this time, but I still can't run.. I mean really run. I've been trying to get my mileage up and run a little faster, but whenever I do, I start to break down... And now it's hurting all the time.

So, I'm looking at arthroscopic surgery again. Hopefully they'll get it all this time.

Milwaukee's Lakefront Marathon - A Good One!

In Milwaukee for the weekend, I watched this year's Lakefront Marathon this morning. Weather was a little chilly for me--high forties, but the wind was at their backs, as it usually is for this race, and it was nice and sunny.

I ran it in 2003, the year my hip started giving me trouble and just before I found out I was anemic. That year was really cold, 31 degrees at the start, and didn't warm up much--I froze!  The start is in Grafton, just north of downtown Milwaukee, at Grafton High School, which is directly across the street from my husband's company building.  The course runs at a slight downhill through mostly residential streets, along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

It was once a good marathon option if you didn't get into Chicago (which is usually run a week later), but it has become so popular on its own merits that they now have a limit on entries and it fills up quite early.  I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good qualifying time for Boston.

Milwaukee's LakeFront Marathon 2010

Piriformis Syndrome and PT

I decided not to wait two weeks before going to a doctor; saw an orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday. First, let me say that I've had ongoing pain since the hip surgery over two years ago, after almost three months of physical therapy and both the surgeon and PT giving me the okay to start running again (see first blog - Aug 16 '09). The pain would not be too bad, but would get worse as I would try to move up my mileage and/or speed. So, I would back off a while and start again, only to be stopped by the pain again. I saw an orthopedic surgeon in Wisconsin who told me to stop running and take Aleve for a month, then start back again slowly. I did that. My hip/leg eventually blew up again. A few months later, I saw an orthopedic surgeon in South Florida who told me to stop running and take Aleve for a month, then start back again slowly. I did it again. Hip/leg eventually blew up again. For the past year and a half I have been going through this cycle.

The doctor I saw on Wednesday thinks my problem is piriformis syndrome. I have piriformis tendinitis, high hamstring tendinopathy, sciatica, and some hip bursitis. AND, he told me something new. After explaining everything to him and him examining me, my movement, flexibility, what hurts when... (the two other doctors barely touched me--very poor examination)... he said that they are seeing people who have had hip arthroscopic surgery (like me) who develop this piriformis syndrome; people who haven't been rehabbed correctly after surgery.

Soooo, he prescribed aggressive PT for the next eight weeks, AND I am seeing a PT who is a runner who treats runners. YAY! I have hope!! And, it makes sense... I have been able to run just fine for miles and miles with not too much trouble or pain, and then not be able to run at all for four or five days--too much pain.

Anyway, I go tomorrow to my first PT session, so I will let you know!

What the Heck is Wrong With Me?! and My Return to Running

Okay, so I ran my first race in over three years yesterday. Just a local 5k... but I won my age group!

The last race I ran was a 5k, April 8, '06. I had decided if I couldn't run long I would train for 5k's. My best friend and training partner Jane and I started training end of January of that year. Trained with the pain in my hip and managed to run a 4-miler and a 5k in March fairly well. But the 5k in April was too much; my leg blew up and, once again, I stopped running.

It wasn't a running injury that stopped me, though I didn't know it at the time. A disease called synovial chondromatosis had settled in my left hip joint. It's kinda rare and will usually only affect one joint. They don't know why it happens, but the thinking now (according to my surgeon) is that it is caused by a virus. The synovial lining of the joint becomes inflamed and then over time produces little nodules of cartilage that then float around in the joint. This would normally show up on an MRI and even an x-ray. Over the next five years, I had numerous x-rays, six MRI's, and a bone scan. The synovial chondromatosis was never seen, though other injuries were diagnosed because I began compensating for the pain in my hip and developed an abnormal gait.

The pain and locking in my hip started in early 2003. From then till I finally had surgery on August 10, 2007, I would stop running, see a doctor, be diagnosed with various injuries--herniated lumbar disks, bursitis in my hip, high hamstring tendinopathy, inflammation in my external rotators--go through physical therapy, start running again just to be stopped in my tracks and go through the whole thing again. I would stop running for two-three months at a time, but the pain in my hip would never go a way.

The pain became so bad the spring and summer of '07 I could hardly walk. My whole leg ached all the time. Went to an orthopedic surgeon, had an MRa, with a dye injection; still nothing showed in the hip joint. But it did show a tear in my gluteus medius tendon. Physical therapy for that and after telling the PT my symptoms, he tested me for a labral tear of the cartilage in the hip joint. He said I tested positive for that and talked to the surgeon about it. Arthroscopic surgery three weeks later, supposed to last about an hour. When I woke up, my husband John said to me, "It wasn't what they thought." I had been in surgery over two hours, my leg in traction--the hip bone pulled out of the socket so they could get inside. The surgeon (who told me my hip was a "bloody mess") cut out the inflamed synovial lining and sucked out all the nodules and blood.

I know now that I made everything worse by continuing to run and race. I ran a 50-miler and a marathon, along with the training and numerous shorter races, in 2003; and a 50-miler, a 50k, and a marathon, and the training for those, in 2004. No racing in 2005, but that little bit in early 2006. I think that that is why I am still having trouble with my whole leg. I have pain in the front of my hip and down the front of my thigh. I have the high hamstring tendinopathy and probably some sciatica. I have pain down the front lateral lower leg. My toes cramp. For the past two years, after surgery and physical therapy and the doctor and PT telling me I could start running again, I have not been able to get my mileage up or do any kind of speed training. Hurts too much.

But... a couple weeks ago, I seemed to be a little better. So, this past week, Monday, I was able to run nine easy miles with not much trouble. And so I did some 30/30's on Tuesday, and some strides on Thursday... and my first race in over three years on Saturday, August 15, 2009.