Hi all,
I’m having hip surgery in a couple of weeks to correct my femoralacetabular impingement (FAI) in my left hip. I was wondering if anyone here has had the surgery and if so, how long was it before you could ride again? My surgeon told me full recovery is 6-12 months, the physiotherapists seem a bit more optimistic though as I am young and fit and healthy. I’m hoping to be back riding in 4-6 months so I can show next summer.
I am having my second FAI of the year on the 19th. Good thing I only have two hips! The first one was in March. I was back on my horse at the walk in like six weeks. I did that for about a month then started trotting some. My doctor originally said no riding for 4 1/2 months but I didn’t make it that long! You should be back riding in 4 months and back up to speed by six months if all goes well. Best of luck with your surgery and recovery.
Check out this thread to follow our saga. http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?425310-I-have-surgery-tomorrow-wish-me-luck!!!-Now-called-I-canNOT-catch-a-break!
I had FAI correction and labrum reconstruction Nov 11 2013.
It took every bit of six months before I could ride, and probably 9 months or so before I started feeling “normal.” Now, a year out, I can say I’m fully recovered.
Are you just doing the FAI stuff, or is there labrum repair/reconstruction?
Good question Simkie, I forgot that the amount of labral involvement changes the time frame for recovery.
What on earth is that?
ETA: I just Googled it. What kind of symptoms did you have and how were you diagnosed?
Wow. This is really interesting. I have chronic lower back pain in my SI, mostly on the left side. I also have trouble with my hips “popping” - like if I’m doing leg-lowering exercises, my hip will pop, or if I do a grand battement in ballet, then my hip will pop. It doesn’t hurt, but it is annoying and I wonder if that is the source of my back pain? Could it be?
It was mine. They injected my left hip and the SI pain on the left was 100% gone for two weeks. Got the surgery and was doing really well then out of the blue started having SI pain on the right.
I’m have a labral repair as well.
Pocket Pony, I started having symptoms about October of last year. Noticed after a lot of riding or running my hip would ache, but it just felt like a tight hip flexor so I didn’t think much of it. Fast forward to end of January, and the pain was getting worse. It used to be I would only really notice it after riding 3 or more horses, but now it was after just one horse and the pain wouldn’t go away. It was constantly aching and I couldn’t rotate it fully without extreme pain. I was actually riding in a clinic and the clinician noticed I was riding with my left leg out in front of me, and was twisting a bit. I’ve ridden with this clinician a lot over the years and she noticed this was new for me. I told her I was having some hip pain and she suggested going for a chiropractic adjustment. I went to my family doctor and she suspected tendinitis in my hip flexor, but wanted to send me for an X-ray just to be safe. Good thing she did! X-Ray showed a large bone spur on my left hip (I have the pincer type of FAI). I was referred to a surgeon who confirmed. Next thing you know I’m on the list for surgery! Surgeon was actually quite surprised as I’m only 24, quite young for FAI. He suspected it was brought on from an earlier trauma to my hip. I’ve been able to keep my symptoms in check with daily pain medication, and reducing the number of horses I ride per day. I haven’t been able to run since the spring. I’m looking forward to getting this surgery over with and getting back to my regular active lifestyle!
Also want to ask, for those who have had the surgery, did you find you had back pain in the weeks following the surgery? I’m currently recovering from fracturing my back in 4 places, transverse processes on my right side from L1-L4. (Had a bad fall while riding). I’m doing extremely well, my surgeon was amazed when he saw me, he initially thought we would have to postpone the surgery but after seeing me he decided I would be okay, but warned me I would most likely experience increased back pain after the surgery. At the time of my surgery it will be 5 weeks since fracturing my back.
I had the surgery due to back pain (SI) so mine actually got better. They put a post for lack of a better word between your legs to keep you from getting pulled off the table when they pull on your leg to open up your hip space. I imagine that may cause some pain for you to some extent but hopefully won’t last too long.
My hip surgery was due to significant SI pain. Injected the SI, no relief. Hip MRI ordered next, with significant results. I had “SI issues” ever since coming off a horse and landing hard on my left hip.
I don’t recall back pain in particular following surgery, but was pretty loaded up on oxycontin and vicodin. Recovery was terrible. The Game Ready was a life saver. The pain I identified as SI did disappear following surgery, only to pop up again once I was active. A die-hard Gonstead chiropractor resolved that for me.
Given that you’ve got the back fracture + the hip problem, I’d figure at LEAST 6 months before you ride. Recovery is really, really important with the hip thing. If you push it, you can screw your hip flexors…and that can be permanent. I pissed off my flexors and my surgeon threatened to put me back on crutches. Thankfully, we were able to calm them down with some rest and careful PT.
Find the best surgeon you can. Technique and skill is important with this one. Philippon in Vail is the labral repair god. If you can find someone who studied with him, that would probably be good.
Are you happy you got the procedure done? Any regrets?
My surgeon told me he may end up cutting my hip flexor, said he would decide once he’s in there. I will also be getting a Durolane injection.
I am on the East coast of Canada and my surgeon is a sports medicine doc who specializes in hip, knee, and shoulder anthroscopy. He has trained in Canada and the US (California and South Carolina), I actually feel very lucky to have him as my surgeon, as all the reviews I have heard have been extremely positive. My friend who is an athletic therapist frequently rehabs his ACL patients. She says his surgical procedures are always flawless, however he tends to be very slow and cautious on the rehab side of things, whereas the other osteo surgeon in the area is more of a “Hey if you think you can ski in 4 months, show me you can ski in 4 months” type.
I wish I’d pursued a Gonstead technique chiro prior to surgery to see what he would have been able to do, but overall my labrum was toast–it was going to be a problem regardless. I’m glad I did it, but I’d be hard pressed to ever sign up for that again.
IIRC, we had talked about an iliopsoas release, and I didn’t need that. There are a lot of other hip flexors, and I believe you can still piss them off even after the iliopsoas release. Slow and steady rehab. Don’t push it. Find a really, really good PT. The first one I used–the one the surgeon recommended–didn’t do me any favors. I switched to another that my pain specialist liked and made much more progress. Nagging muscle pain with PT is NOT good, I learned. I’ve always pushed through pain with other PT, but it was the wrong move with the hip.
OMG, this thread may be a godsend for me. I looked up the Gonstead chiropractic and there’s a doctor near me - I’m going to call for an appointment tomorrow.
I’ve had this chronic pain for years . . . 10 or more, probably. I’ve done chiro, acupuncture, massage, PT, yoga, pilates, ballet, cranio-sacral, Thai massage, now I’m seeing an osteopath and just tried a gyrotonic session. I’m still in pain. I always feel crooked in the saddle, I’m constantly tight on the left side of my body (yes, my left leg would also either swing out ahead of me - especially when jumping - or basically be almost useless). I’m willing to try anything and will give this chiro a call.
Sorry to hijack, but if I can find something that will help me, I will be so thankful!!!
This thread is really interesting. I have chronic hip issues and SI problems that periodically really bother me. My left hip gets “caught” sometimes when riding, for lack of a better way to describe it, and it feels like I am squishing/pinching something at the upper rear part of the hip joint. If I can force it around and get it to pop (a really heavy thunk) it is better. It is always worse on wide horses. I pretty much just have two horses to ride right now, and sometimes I get on the wide guy and can’t get my hip to let go and it hurts enough that I have to just get off. Sometimes it feels tight when I’m just going about my day and I elevate my leg a bit out to the side and sometimes I can get it to thunk back into place. I have no idea what is going on and when I described it to my doctor he just offered pain meds, which is of no help because aside from the pain it’s really tight and restricted when it is “stuck”.
I have SI pain, usually in the right side, that is resultant from getting bucked off and landing on my butt/hip twice in short succession. Sometimes it is totally fine and other times I have very sharp pain and it is hard to walk. I can bring my leg forward normally, but letting it swing back under me bearing weight hurts. If I walk slowly I can disguise it, otherwise I limp. If it is flaring up I can’t put on pants or socks without sitting down. I can lift my right leg to put that leg in no problem, but I can’t stand with all of my weight on that leg without sharp pain. Last week I must have overdone it because one morning I couldn’t stand up. I rolled around in bed for about half an hour and finally had to crawl out. Once I got up and moving it wasn’t so bad.
I keep thinking I should go back to the Dr and get looked at again, but if it isn’t acting up I don’t know that it’s worth anything. Hard to make an appointment for something that doesn’t cause problems every day. Frustrating.
Raferro, I obviously know nothing about this surgery, but you have my sympathies for the pain issues and I hope your surgery goes well and you are pain-free soon!! :yes:
I can’t do anything “normally” so I did not experience the popping in the hip but I believe that is a common occurrence for people with FAI. My PT knew I had FAI years ago because he could feel them when he moved my legs around but wasn’t concerned since I had zero hip pain. Most people with FAI never have any symptoms and do just fine with them. Pain from the hip joint itself is most often felt in the groin. Occasionally it is felt on the front of the hip or the outside of the hip but pain in those areas is often soft tissue instead of the joint. I have bursitis in two different areas of my right hip which they assume will get better once the joint is repaired. I only had bursitis in one spot on the left and it did get better eventually after surgery but did need to be injected twice.
CD, ask for a hip MRI with intra-articular contrast. It’s really worth checking out, and from what I understand that “catching” feeling is consistent with a labral tear. I didn’t have that, so no personal experience with that sensation. When you have the MRI, ask the doctor to put some lidocaine into the joint space. He’ll be in there anyway for the contrast. It will make the contrast more comfortable, and blocking the joint will be the next step, anyway.
Pocket Pony, I really hope the Gonstead guy helps!
I feel for you guys who have constant issues. I am perfectly fine 90% of the time I’m on the ground and I don’t ride that much, so I don’t think it is worth doing anything too exciting (at least yet). I have wondered if some kind of PT would help, but I don’t really have time for it.
Good luck to all of you guys trying to get issues worked out!
Short of surgery, the only thing that helped me reliably was PT. I can’t stress the importance of a good therapist enough however. You need one that does a lot of hands on work not just has you do exercises.
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