Why I Decided to Go Under the Knife for Hip Surgery

Getting prepped for arthroscopic hip surgery!

8 months ago I underwent arthroscopic hip surgery. I had been experiencing symptoms for over 4 years. This included a pain near my groin that would often radiate down my leg. I struggled to sleep on my left side and would often be kept awake at night with my pain.

The pain seemed to get worse when I squatted past 90 degrees or when I did a good amount of higher impact exercise. The last year before my surgery I had really reduced the amount of high impact training and honestly felt so much better but I was still experiencing some symptoms. (I could write a whole other post about why high impact may not be the best thing for you..)

In those four years I had done two rounds of PT without any change. My doctor finally agreed to do an X-ray and saw a potential impingement so decided a CT would give more information.

After the CT results came back it showed that I for sure had a CAM impingement. What this is is when the ball part of femur that sits in socket is not perfectly smooth. It has an odd shape so doesn’t fit as well in the socket. This can result in bone spurs (its the bones way of protecting it from all the rubbing), tears, and wearing down of cartlidge (osteoarthritis). They also suspected a labral tear but wouldn’t know until they were in for surgery. (They did find a tear and corrected it while correcting impingement during surgery)

The surgeon felt I would be a good candidate for surgery so I decided to go for it. I was told it would be a full year of recovery with at least 6 weeks on crutches. For me it wasn’t a super hard decision because my hip was affecting my life on nearly a day to day basis and I knew that long term implications of not getting surgery was a bigger concern for me. Things like early onset osteoarthritis. If I didn’t get the surgery while I was younger I was almost guaranteed to need it as I got older and the arthritis set in further. This would have led to full hip replacement. By getting the surgery while I was younger I felt more confident in a positive outcome and my ability to intervene before the arthritis set in. It’s not to say that I will never need a hip replacement because as modern medicine keeps us living longer our bodies just naturally start to decline in some form. However, it likely gave me much more time before I need to worry about it again.

Now having said that it was a fairly easy decision, I was still nervous as moving is part of my livelihood and a way to cope with mental health. COVID was actually a saving grace as I was limited in my work during that time and it allowed me time to recover.

I am 8 months out and would say I am at about 90%. The year mark is really when I will know where I am at for longer term but feel like it was the right decision for me.

Read my next post about my tips & knowledge to anyone who may be thinking about hip surgery or may be experiencing some symptoms. Remember, each person is different and it’s important to reflect on your life and what you feel is the best option for you. It may not be the same decision I made. This is simply to give you more info for your decision.